


Snarky Sweethearts

by AugustStories



Category: Glee
Genre: Best Friends, Bromance, Canon Compliant, Dalton Academy, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Blaine Anderson Friendly, Not Blaine or Klaine Friendly, Post Steroids, Santana Lopez & Sebastian Smythe Friendship, Sebastian Smythe Angst, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 10:09:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: As the steroids scandal unfolds, Sebastian Smythe wakes up in a hospital chair, surrounded by the shattered pieces of his broken life and broken self.Fortunately, he also finds himself surrounded by amazing friends and a wonderful second family who help him piece himself back together again and teach him to put his happiness first.And he might just find love on the way as well.





	1. Prologue - The Future

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a birthday present to one of my best friends. Now getting posted with her blessing. 
> 
> Happy Birthday again Tessie.

He watches Blaine propose to Kurt Hummel and feels nothing of the pain that he had once believed to be feeling at a sight like this. He isn't scared or sick over the thought of having lost someone he had never had.

Blaine had never been his anything, not really.

Rob's hand in his is warm and steady, Olli's arm around his waist is strong and supporting. Danny cranes his head back to catch a look at him, smile small but sweet. Jeff quietly asks him if he is alright, arms around Nick from behind and Sebastian tells him he's fine with an honest smile, sees them watch him instead of the boys they helped get together once upon a time.

He knows his phone will have messages from Thad and Donovan later.

Maybe even a line or two from Lydia if she hasn't lost her phone again. And if she did she'll have written them anyway, just grabbed a phone of one of her friends.

He also knows he's okay.

Once upon a time he wanted Blaine, now not anymore.

He's turned over a new leaf for good, has the support of real friends to show for it, he's even happy that Blaine found happiness, even if it's with Kurt Hummel.

"Hey, how about once this school belongs to us again, we go out to the lake, screw rehearsal today."

He cashes in happy smiles and agreeing sighs. Oliver kisses the back of his neck and that means the world to him.

Sebastian Smythe has a life, a good life, a happy life, without Blaine Anderson but with friends who went with him through the worst times and then pieced him together right along with each other, with a boyfriend who knows him better than he does himself.

And now he can't wait to see what the future will bring him.


	2. Hitting Rock Bottom

The morning after the steroids plot had been revealed and the consequences had fallen over Dalton and the Warblers, Sebastian woke up in a hospital chair after a nightmarish four hour nap. He wasn't hurt, no more than a bruise on his back from when he had hit the sideboard after being shoved to the ground.

It wasn't him in the hospital bed.

It were his friends.

Oliver either hadn't moved at all since Sebastian had closed his eyes or he was by pure coincidence back in the position Sebastian had last seen him in. Bandages around his head, thick bruise over his left cheekbone, lip cut, left hand in a cast and Sebastian didn't want to think of the bruises clothes were hiding. On his other side, he found Rob looking at him when he glanced over, green eyes soft and entirely just as clueless looking as Sebastian felt.

Rob's face was unharmed because he came in late and it was him and ten years of kickboxing who ended the nightmare but Sebastian knew of the cast that a blanket was hiding on Rob's right foot and the cuts bandages were protecting on his right arm because Henry had had a fucking trashed bottle.

Sebastian had no idea what to say and it was Rob who spoke up first, "I feel like crap," he croaked out and Sebastian forced out a half hysterical laugh, suddenly wondering if he maybe got a concussion after all and should have someone look him over again. There were six of them who were injured and none of them have family in the state and Sebastian's Biology teacher was amazing but he was human and couldn't keep them all fussed over at once.

It was why Sebastian had been allowed and even ordered to stay with Oliver and Rob over night in the first place, their parents were flying in, the police would want statements soon and Sebastian felt sick.

"Are you...in pain?" He wanted to know, quietly because the last thing he wanted was to wake up Oliver, "Anything...I can do?" The words could barely get out, as if something was blocking them.

"It's okay, Bas. I'm okay, it doesn't hurt." It was a lie, one that Rob knew Sebastian would see but he didn't care in that moment, just nodded because he was too damn tired and too shaken up over what had happened to call him out on it.

He had tried to piece stuff back together last night already, had wanted to have his shit together before the police and the schoolboard and the parents came but he hadn't been able to and panicked so hard that Jeff had called a nurse and Mister Ravi back. They had explained to him that it was normal, that it would come back and that he didn't need to pressure himself to remember right now. Sebastian had no idea what had happened between watching helplessly how Oliver crashed face first into the couch table and snapping back into his own body in an ambulance, Mister Ravi kneeling in front of him and calling his name.

It had hit him then that his friends and boys he hadn't really considered to be his friends had gotten hurt defending him, protecting him from Hunter and his minions. Sebastian had thrown up so violently then that he had nearly passed out and had been put on an IV for two hours to calm his system down again.

Oliver, Rob, Jeff, Nick and Daniel.

He knew from Ravi that Jeff had only cuts and bruises himself. It were Nick and Daniel who had been hit badly, the smallest among them and if Sebastian concentrated really hard he could faintly remember seeing Nick fly through a window, and it made him sick again to think of it.

On the bed Rob turned his palm upside down, always just somehow knowing how Sebastian was feeling and Sebastian wrapped his fingers through his, held on while he was drowning in it all.

"It's gonna be okay," Rob said and Sebastian shook his head, biting down on his lips because he wouldn't cry, he wouldn't cry because the only person who had ever seen him cry since Sebastian had stopped being a toddler was sleeping in the bed on his left. And he just couldn't cry until he knew that Oliver was in no pain himself because Oliver had thrown himself into a fist that had come for Sebastian, Oliver had taunted Hunter until Hunter had focused on him and not Sebastian.

"I don't...Daniel and Nick...haven't...woken up."

"Even if they haven't, they will. It's all gonna be okay, Hunter is gone, Seb. It's over." Rob told him, squeezing his hand until Sebastian looked up and the roles were all fucked up because Sebastian was supposed to be the one offering strength to the friend lying in the hospital bed but he couldn't. Sebastian had always thought to be strong, an unwavering force in the wind, so proud of himself, but then he had met Rob and his new roommate had blown that image away so much. Rob had been stronger than Sebastian could ever be, full of life and strength and courage and optimism. And Oliver with his never ending smiles and laughter and get-up attitude, who just jumped right back up after defeats and losses.

Sebastian had felt so small next to them.

His first two real friends, the first two boys he had talked to in Dalton. They had been the only ones until a few weeks ago who had gotten to see the real Sebastian behind the scathing commentary, the smirks and the leering eyes.

And then the door was thrown open and Sebastian jumped so hard that he crashed from the chair, hitting his head against the side of Rob's bed, stars exploding in front of his eyes, heart positively setting out for a beat there. Rob calling out his name and lurching up on the bed caused the monitor attached to him to start blaring and then Oliver was startling awake and everything around Sebastian turned black and quiet.

\--

When he got back to himself, he was lying on a bed that had been pushed in between Oliver and Rob and Rob was sitting in a chair at his side, resolutely glaring at the figure pacing up and down at the foot of the beds while Oliver was sitting in his own bed, hissing complaints over respect for hospitals and patient recovery.

It all stopped though when Sebastian twitched the hand that Rob was holding and all attention turned on him.

"Oh thank god, " Rob breathed out, "Hey, Seb, can you hear me?" He nodded because he felt too fussy and hazy to spin together a sentence, his eyes had to portray wonderfully how terrified he was because Rob reached out to bring up the hand he hadn't been holding. It showed an IV line, a pulse clip on his finger, "I think this hospital is gonna lose an assistant doctor today still. You've got a concussion, not a small one at that, too, and he didn't see that last night. You're not supposed to get up for another hour at least, is that okay? I can get a nurse if you're in pain."

"You're not getting up either," the reason for the interruption and the too quick opening door spoke up, appearing in Sebastian's vision when he leaned over him, "They set you up with some sedatives, Sebastian, it's just a precaution to make sure you're resting. It's why it's all so foggy and slow right now but you're gonna be okay." Sebastian's fingers finally managed to grab Rob, it felt like he had to be crushing his friend's hand but in truth it was probably weak as hell.

And the alarming beeping of the heart monitor over his head showed what he was feeling anyway.

"Donovan, do something, he's panicking." Oliver snarled out, pushing himself up on the bed and Sebastian opened his mouth but no sound was coming out, and then Donovan's hands were framing his face.

"Hey, hey, look at me, Sebastian, just look at me," Oliver's brother hurried to soothe him, "You're gonna be okay. I know it has to be terrifying to feel so helpless right now but I swear to you nothing will happen to you. You're safe here and you need rest so your head can heal again. Everyone is gonna be okay." Donovan told him but Sebastian also saw how he reached up to press the button to call a nurse, "This place is a disaster. Drugging the kid up with heavy sedatives after they got attacked, for fuck's sake this town is killing me."

Donovan's starting rant over Ohio's backdated standards did the calming down trick and Sebastian's pulse was down to normal again before the nurse even turned up to be seriously chewed out by Donovan, doctor profession bleeding out, threatening to sue the hospital before shutting up when his parents slipped into the room with Rob's Dad behind them. The fathers learned what happened and as incompetent as the personell here was, Sebastian felt almost sorry for the nurse.

Almost.

As it stood he was still smothered under cotton and was entirely too thankful for Rob not letting go of him even when his Dad came to hug him, he didn't want to know what could happen without an anchor right now. On his other side, Oliver's parents checked over their youngest son and it hit Sebastian like a gutpunch that he wouldn't have this, his father wouldn't care. The thought couldn't even fester though because then Oliver's mother was carding her fingers through his hair as well, softly telling him that everything was gonna be okay.

\--

When Sebastian woke up for the second time after his collapse, his head was clearer again already and he blinked open his eyes to Donovan sitting on his chair with his feet propped up on his brother's bed and the back of the chair leaning against Sebastian's. Rob was gone but his jacket was still there and Sebastian prayed and hoped he was only gone to be looked over by another doctor. Oliver was sitting up in his bed, picking at an apple that Sebastian had no doubt his mother had in all loving no-nonsense tone ordered him to eat.

"They're not going to sue the school down to the foundation, are they?" Oliver was just then speaking up around another mouthful of apple and though Donovan glared at him in disgust for a second, he was also quick to answer.

"I wouldn't put it past them. Dad is furious, brother, I've never seen him this angry. He told the headmaster right at the beginning of the year that drawing in these military kids is a bad decision that will come to bite him in the ass." Donovan explained and Sebastian doubted those were the words that Alexander Connors had used. "Here we are now, and it's about a hundred times worse than we could have even feared."

"We didn't take the steroids. Rob, Bas and I, none of us took the steroids. You have to believe me, Donovan," Oliver begged and Donovan snapped his chair back up straight again to take his brother's hands. "Hunter made it clear that any and all boys who didn't take the drugs and couldn't keep up were out of the team. Rob, Bas and I could. Jeff, Nick and Daniel were blackmailed because Hunter couldn't lose them, not when that meant drawing the headmaster's attention, we have the proof."

"Olli, calm down," Donovan cut through the rant, "It's okay. I was here when you talked to the police, okay? I believe you, I have no reason not to. I went to school with Jeff's brothers, okay? I know those kids, I know they would never do this if they weren't scared." And there Oliver looked to the side and saw Sebastian awake.

"Seb..."

Donovan looked around as well, sitting back into his chair so he could keep an eye on them both now, "You feeling any better, Sebastian?" He nodded, didn't feel like speaking, didn't even know if he could, his throat felt too choked up. "Mum called your father, got responsibility shifted over to her." And Sebastian blew out a breath over Donovan's words, it was more than he could have hoped for really. "We're gonna fix this, okay?"

"Rob is at a check up," Oliver explained when he caught sight of Sebastian's look to the empty bed, "Mum is with him, they wanted another look at the stitches he had to get." Sebastian winced and Oliver's eyes turned apologizing. "Seb, Ravi told me you can't remember what happened..." Donovan looked between them, lips parting to surely say something but Oliver cut over him, "Rob and I gave our statements to the police. I was with you when it started so they won't haunt you for yours for now. It's okay, Seb, you have time."

"First of all, it's important that you get better again." Donovan emphasized, his eyes flickering over their heart monitors, "We'll take you back to New York once you both are cleared for transport. No matter what the fathers and the schoolboard decide, there is still gonna be a major investigation going to happen at Dalton and against the faculty..."

"It's not their fault, Hunter..."

"They are tasked with overseeing the well-being of the minors in their care, Oliver. It's their task, their duty to see something like this happen, even when the students are too terrified to say something. Especially then. You won't remember it but when I was your age, we had a row of suicide attempts that swept through Dalton because of the words of one student, no teacher intervened either. Now, boys got hurt again and you know that our Dad and our uncle are not gonna sit by any longer. The least that will happen is a few weeks of intense shifting through the faculty and student body to sort out the rot. Something you won't experience first hand because you will recover at home. You're a kid, Oliver, you all are still kids, this is not your fight to have."

"It became our fight the second Blaine and his nutheads decided to ride this out on our shoulders," Oliver snapped, face turning into a thundercloud, "The second he outed this scandal without a fucking care over what consequences it would have for us!" When it was out, Donovan calmly reached up to silence the blaring sound of Oliver's spiked heartrate while Oliver glared at the ceiling.

"Feeling better now?"

"Yes."

"Okay," Donovan decided and then got up, he pulled the chair out from between the two beds and then caused his brother to yelp when he loosened the brakes on the bed and pushed him right up against Sebastian's own bed. "I'm gonna see if I can find a doctor to answer me some questions, you two look after each other. And no one gets up, am I understood?" Sebastian nodded, saw how Oliver scowled, rolled his eyes and then nodded as well, Donovan still left the room backwards with a finger pointed in their direction in warning.

When they were alone, Oliver turned on his side, "Hey," he began quietly and Sebastian tried to smile for him but it surely was more a grimace, "You don't have to speak if you don't want to." Sebastian briefly closed his eyes, long enough for Oliver to reached out across the space between them and wrap fingers around his wrist, "It's gonna be okay."

Sebastian wanted people to stop saying those words.

He also wanted Oliver to never stop saying those words.

A knock sounded on the door and Oliver let go of him again, rolling onto his back to call whoever it was in. It was a pale Jeff with bruises on his face, arms acrossed over his chest, being led into the room by his brother's hand on his shoulder, Sebastian took a guess that it was the younger of Jeff's older brothers, Jeremy then and not Jackson.

"Hi," He greeted them quietly and Sebastian couldn't look at him, "I wanted to see how you were doing. I ran into Rob earlier, he told me the gist of it."

"We're okay. Concussions are really the only truly annoying part." Oliver answered for both of them and Sebastian was so grateful, "Hey, is Nick..."

"No, not yet." Jeff was quick to reply, face closing off, "They're saying he will wake up soon though, he's gonna be alright. Daniel woke up already, his parents are with him and I think they're gonna take him back to Seattle."

Daniel had not been their friend.

Not really.

He wasn't friends with Sebastian like Oliver and Rob were. He hadn't gotten involved because of second line friendship like Nick and Jeff had. Daniel had simply been unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And that felt more awful than anything else could.

"Yeah, my parents are going to take us back to New York, too. Is your father with the board?" Oliver wanted to know and Jeff shook his head, he looked so crushed and scared, Sebastian couldn't take it anymore and rolled onto his side, turned his back on them all and closed his eyes.

"My Dad is in London still. Jackson went in his place, he's gonna advocate to keep the school open after the investigation is done but Nick's Mum told me that it doesn't look good right now." Jeff whispered nearly and Sebastian bit down hard on his lips to keep the tears at bay.

Everything was in ruins.

\--

_Once upon a time, Sebastian had had a family, a happy childhood and a happy beautiful family. A proud Dad, a kind loving Mom and a big sister who loved to read to him and dress him up in silly outfits. They had lived in a white picket fence house in Queens._

_He had been a much longed for second child, the cherished spoiled son, there had not been a weekend where his Dad hadn't taken him out for Lacrosse, Baseball or Basketball games._

_And then his grandfather had died and left the law firm to Sebastian's uncle and not his Dad and a perfect picture had gotten cracks. His Dad lost his goal in life and slipped completely off the rails, drinking and having affairs. His sister couldn't cope with any of it and left for the Sorbonne in Paris and his Mom wouldn't stop crying._

_Sebastian had been six._

_And then his Mom had gotten sick. Cancer, terminal. Undiscovered because as Sebastian later found out his Mom had never trusted doctors. His Dad turned into his father because the man who returned home when his Mom was already in the hospital for good, he wasn't his Dad anymore, he was a cold bitter man who couldn't deal with not getting what he wanted._

_Sebastian was nine when his Mom died and his father sent him off to live with Caroline in Paris which took some time to get used to for both of them, Sebastian and his sister. They managed to make it work though and for years it felt like he had finally found his feet under himself again, friends and flings. _

_Until Caroline found love with a hippie, got a midlife crisis at 28 and sent Sebastian back to the US to go and travel the world with her weirdo._

_Fun times._

_The only thing Sebastian remembered between landing in New York and flying off to Columbus was silence between his father and him, neither knowing the other, neither knowing what to say._

\--

"There is one thing I still don't understand," Donovan said on the evening of that day one after the confrontation that had gone so deep south. Sitting crosslegged on the foot of Oliver's bed, eating red jello with a plastic spoon, Oliver's brother – in Sebastian's eyes one of the coolest people on the planet – looked into the round. Oliver looked up from the fries and burger that his Dad had smuggled into the hospital for them before slipping away to make arrangements for tomorrow's flight to New York.

"What's that?" Rob rushed to speak before Oliver could drive him crazy again with speaking before swallowing, Sebastian stuck another fry in his mouth, no appetite at all. Eating only because it meant avoiding Donovan's sharp eyes on him. Donovan looked from his brother, to his cousin and then to Sebastian who tried not to flinch away and hide behind Rob who was sitting next to him, legs stretched out onto Oliver's bed.

They, as in Oliver and Rob, had told Donovan in detail over what had happened yesterday, a story that for Sebastian sounded like a bad movie, like a nightmare that someone had had about him, not something he had experienced himself. He hadn't even known anymore that Hunter had stormed into the Warblers common room with a needle, going straight for Sebastian, he still had no pictures in his head to go with those words, the first thing he remembered still was Oliver flying into the couch table.

"Why did Clarington suspect Sebastian to have been the one leaking the steroids fact to the New Directions?" Donovan wanted to know and was met with three clueless faces, "Boys, this is the very last moment where you should keep secrets. I know you wanna protect each other but the only thing helping right now is the truth."

"We don't know, Donovan." Oliver insisted and Rob nodded along, "We have no idea who stuck the idea to the New Directions so that..."

"It was Trent," a very familiar voice interrupted from the doorway and Rob would have lurched up and off Sebastian's bed if Donovan hadn't snatched out an arm to keep him down. Thad closed the door from where it had been half open and then rushed over, hugging Rob with a strength that should have hurt but Rob relaxed only the more into it. "Oh my god, I'm so happy you're okay."

"I can't believe you came," Rob babbled out nervously when Thad pulled back again, hand reaching out to squeeze Sebastian's shoulder who couldn't even smile in greeting. "God, Thad, it's been terrifying."

"I came as soon as I heard, first plane I could get after Wes called me. Next thing I know, I was standing outside the Academy, police everywhere and no one had any idea what the fuck was going on. No one could tell me anything, they ushered us off campus immediately." Thad huffed out, taking a seat on the edge of Sebastian's bed, turning to the side so he could still look at all of them. Sebastian had set his fries to the side and then slumped sideways back into the pillows, in all this chaos and fear and pain, he had forgotten about Thad. He hadn't even realized until now that Thad hadn't had any way of knowing, that they hadn't been able to call him, that they hadn't heard from him because none of them had their phones, those were all back in their dorms.

"If I hadn't snuck in with Flint's help and found your Dad, Rob, I'd still be sitting duck there. They're not telling us anything." Thad ranted out, too worked up to keep it together, Rob leaned against his, intertwined their hands. "Wes came with me, he's with Jeff now. They might be allowed to see Nick still tonight." Sebastian heard him speak but couldn't stop thinking about having forgotten about Thad.

The boy nearly one year his elder who had been there for him as well from the start, his roommate's best friend and boyfriend. Thad had graduated last year, escaped the hell that was soon thereafter to fall upon them with Hunter Clarington's arrival but he had kept close, not just for Rob.

He had forgotten one of his friends...

"Seb, are you okay?" Oliver was suddenly hovering over him and Sebastian hadn't felt anyone move but when he opened his eyes again, he was alone on his bed, and when had he closed his eyes in the first place? They had even separated the beds again and Rob and Thad were sitting on Rob's bed, eyes worried as Sebastian could see when Donovan rolled him onto his back.

"Olli, move back a bit." Donovan said and then there were fingers snapping in Sebastian's face two times, he flickered his eyes up to look at a pair of brown eyes that were just slightly darker than Oliver's deeply concerned ones. "Sebastian, I need you to focus for a moment. Do you think you can do that?" Sebastian nodded, the whole thing getting easier when Oliver grabbed his left hand and held on tight, grounding him.

"You've spaced out on us hardcore, Sebastian," Donovan got out with the truth and Sebastian felt his head spin, "I understand that talking is too much right now, I get it, okay? But we need to find some way to communicate because I need to know how you are doing."

"He's not talking?" Thad asked somewhere off to the side but was quickly shushed by Rob.

"I'll try it with yes and no questions for now and then I'm gonna find me a nurse and get you a pen and some paper, and we'll rely on your friends' abilities to translate facial expressions because apparently they're eeriely good at it." Donovan noted and Sebastian knew he was right, for Oliver especially Sebastian had always been a book easy to read.

There had never been any hiding from him, even with Rob and Thad it only worked if Sebastian tried really hard, something he didn't have the energy for now. The rest of the world had always only seen the smirk and the comments, they had seen the villain Sebastian had wanted them to see.

The mask.

"Are you in any pain? And be honest with me."

No. So a shaking of his head. Donovan's eyes flickered to Oliver who nodded, Sebastian scoffed, he was too damn out of it to lie.

"Do you feel anything other than confusion and disorientation?"

No. Another shake of his head.

Donovan groaned, Sebastian was glad he didn't sugarcoat anything, he hated doctors with pokerfaces, and one of Donovan's hands switched off the IV line that a nurse had changed some hours ago.

"I hate this hospital." Donovan stated with a growl slipping past his lips and then he reached for Sebastian's hand, "They've drugged you to kingdom come. How is that solving anything? God, in heaven, I'm starting to feel more competant in my pinky finger than this entire hospital combined." Donovan quietly mumbled to himself while he obviously counted Sebastian's pulse. "Okay, I'm gonna find a nurse and then a doctor and then Dad. I am at the end of my patience." Donovan continued when he straightened up again, setting Sebastian's hand carefully down on the bed before walking over to turn off the IV line that had been attached to his brother, going so far as to detach the line from the PVC on Oliver's hand who watched him with an eyebrow raised. "Thad, you make sure that no one comes in here and gives them anything or reattaches those IV lines."

"Got it."

"Olli, keep Sebastian awake and _here_. I'll be back soon."

Donovan left with a face that promised trouble for his intended target and Sebastian rolled his head to the side to focus on Oliver while Rob and Thad began to quietly talk in the background.

"You just scared the crap out of me. One moment you were looking at me and then suddenly you were just gone up here." Oliver told him in a whisper, tapping his temple to emphasize what he meant. "You didn't react to any of us for minutes." Sebastian clumsily reached for Oliver's hand, frowning over his fucked up coordination, "It's okay, I'm here." Oliver assured him.

Since they had kissed on New Year's Eve, it had sometimes been awkward, just moments here and there where they hadn't known what to do with each other. He liked Oliver, more than just a best friend by now, so much was clear to Sebastian but a part of him was also still hung up on Blaine, and he couldn't even think about trying anything with Oliver until that wasn't so faint that he didn't feel it anymore.

Everything else wasn't fair to Oliver.

There was something there, something that maybe even scared Sebastian because it was more than just wanting to kiss the other boy senseless, more than just getting him into bed. Because that he could have achieved by now, it hadn't been for a lack of trying to seduce each other on both their sides, right from the beginning.

But then Blaine had turned up and turned everything upside down.

Ending with him throwing them into the fire.

"We'll get out of here soon, Don is just a fingernail's length away from exploding. He has even started a list of incompetence on his phone." Oliver regaled him with fun facts over his brother and Sebastian tried to smile, it had to work because Oliver beamed back at him. He had such a beautiful smile. "You're gonna be okay, you hear me?" Oliver insisted as he leaned his forehead against Sebastian's, "We're all gonna be okay now. With or without Dalton, it doesn't matter, as long as we're all still standing. And I might not be a mindreader but I know you well enough to know that you feel guilty, and I need you to stop, Seb. None of this was your fault, you were a victim."

Maybe.

But maybe Sebastian could have been stronger five months ago and not let Hunter Clarington take what he couldn't hold anymore.

"No," Oliver got a little louder, pulling back so Sebastian didn't have to go cross-eyed to look at him, on his other side two weights were sinking down on the bed and hands reached for his right hand and his shoulder, "You are not to blame for what happened, Seb. Hunter is a psychopath and we should have seen that long before the steroids hit, instead of finding his Bond villain leadership a little endearing. But it's still not our fault."

Something ugly rolled up in his chest and he gasped out once and then twice, tried so hard to fight it down but his body just wasn't following his commands.

Oliver shushed him before he was even crying and then despite the cast Oliver pulled him into his arms, someone else stroked through his hair and another pair of hands over his back.

And Sebastian simply broke down.


	3. Chosen Family in Times of Trouble

New York was certainly more freezing than Columbus, Sebastian decided upon stepping out of the airport building and immediately buried half his face in his scarf. It had been two days now since Hunter had thrown himself at Sebastian and his goons had attacked his friends, two days since life at Dalton had more or less come to a standstill.

The school wasn't closed, not yet, just temporarily out of business and the boys had been sent home. Oliver, Rob and Sebastian had been whisked out of the hospital and to the airport the second they had been discharged, Thad coming along of course, he was going to college in New York after all anyway.

Daniel had been whisked away by his parents and Nick had finally woken up an hour before they had left the hospital, in possession of all his memories and wits. Jeff's brothers and Nick's Mum had been preparing to take them back home to California.

A hand landed on his shoulder and steered him right and Sebastian let Alexander guide him over to the SUV with tinted windows. Driver waiting patiently at the side to open the door. Behind him, Oliver was complaining about the weather to his Mom, and Rob gave a strangled yelp, turning to look over his shoulder provided Sebastian with Donovan and Thad jumping to catch Rob when his crutches had slipped on a patch of ice, Rob's Dad had remained behind in Westerville as one of the heads of the schoolboard.

Dalton's fate in his hands.

"Alright, in with you before you catch a cold now, too." Alexander shushed them into the car, going off to coordinate that all of the bags that had been packed for the boys would be set into the right car. Their dorms hadn't yet been stripped of everything but it was close really. Sebastian squeezed himself into the backrow, smiled tiredly when Oliver sank into the seat next to him and snickered over Donovan bumping his head against the roof of the car.

"You okay?" Oliver wanted to know when Rob somehow climbed into one of the seats behind the driver's row. Despite Sebastian not having uttered a single word since his blackout, Sebastian and Oliver had still somehow managed to figure out a communication system within a few hours while they were both concussed, if that didn't speak compatibility then Sebastian had no idea what could.

And where did that thought come from again?

Having his phone back and access to texting was also quite helpful.

'Just tired. And cold.'

"Tell me about it," Oliver snorted after having glanced down to his phone as the rest got into the car and they were finally on their way to a real home and privacy. Sebastian didn't want to be alone, it was the very last thing he wanted now, not be alone with only his thoughts to keep him terrible company but he wanted away from strangers. "I can't believe it's so much colder here than in freaking Ohio. I feel like we've flown to Canada. Is your head still okay?"

'Yes. Clearer with every second since Donovan turned off the IV.'

Oliver smiled at reading that and quickly showed it to his brother who huffed out half a laugh before he was back to texting himself. "Good," Oliver went on and slipped out of his one glove to reach for Sebastian's hand again, and it was strange how Sebastian couldn't seem to get enough of it, how much it shut up his brain to just feel the other boy's fingers wrapped around his.

Despite being back in New York, it still took nearly two hours to get through traffic and reach the Upper East Side, at which point Sebastian and Oliver had both fallen asleep again, Oliver leaned against his shoulder and it was Donovan who gently woke them up again. He helped them stumble out of the car and then somehow up the few steps that were needed to get into the Connors' townhouse.

Thad was already helping Rob up the stairs and Sebastian knew that Rob had a room in his uncle's and aunt's house for years already, ever since his Dad's job had him all over the country at random intervals. And no one would tell Thad to sleep in one of the guest rooms, which meant there was more than enough room to set Sebastian up in a room of his own and his heart plummeted to his feet at the thought of it.

It had only been three weeks or so since christmas break, since New Year's, since Sebastian had last been here and spent his nights in the guest room down the corridor from Oliver's room. In theory. In reality, they had spent most nights crammed together into Oliver's room, talking through the night, the three of them over christmas, the two of them over the bridging days until New Year's and then the four of them for the two days until they had returned to Ohio.

Talking, watching stupid movies, laughing.

Not believing that everything was going downhill.

Now, Sebastian was positively terrified upon being alone in a darkened room, staring at the door and waiting for Hunter to break it down again.

"You coming?" Oliver asked him and Sebastian saw that he had already moved onto the first stairs, "We can watch a movie while the kitchen gets started on dinner?" Sebastinn nodded and followed Oliver into his room, gratefully falling down upon the huge bed while Oliver fumbled around one-handed with the DVD-Player. Sebastian wouldn't make Donovan's mistake though and offer to help, Oliver was stubborn when it came to his own capabilities and physical limitations, a cast on one hand wouldn't stop him.

When the movie started, Oliver sank down on the bed beside him with a groan, "Welcome back home, I guess." Sebastian huffed and rolled onto his side, buried his face against Oliver's shoulder and then breathed in deeply. It was almost home, Sebastian had spent two christmas breaks, half of one summer break and one Thanksgiving here already, he hadn't been at his father's penthouse since picking up more of his stuff on the first day of last summer.

Nevertheless he already felt better, no longer felt like choking on thin air, paranoid over every noise, leaving Ohio behind had worked miracles in getting his head to settle down. The unease over the night remained but if he got over his pride until then, Sebastian had no doubt that asking Oliver to stay with him tonight would not be met with a complaint.

Proven when Oliver sighed and wriggled them around until Sebastian was lying with his head on Oliver's uninjured arm, a hand in his hair and Oliver had to be the only person on the planet who could get away with screwing up Sebastian's hair. Except maybe Oliver's Mum, Julianna was wonderful.

"You know you can talk to me, right? I mean, it doesn't matter if it's verbally or via text or goddarn pantomime." Oliver began and Sebastian poked him in his ticklish sides for the old French dig, Oliver twitched, pulling on Sebastian's hair in retaliation, "I am being serious here, Seb. I will immediately delete the texts after I read them if that is what you want." And he tugged Sebastian up so they were looking at each other, so close by it did things to Sebastian's stomach, "Just...I need to know that you're okay, Seb ...as okay as you can be right now."

Sebastian smiled, felt how easy it came now and pulled up a hand to frame Oliver's face with it on one side, Oliver sighed but smiled as well.

"It's been less than two days but I already miss your voice," he said quietly then, all longing and understanding mixed together, "Let me know what I can do, Seb." In answer, Sebastian pulled the hand still resting on his head to wrap around his waist and Oliver understood, even without words, pulled him into a hug and held on, "We will fucking fix this, I swear."

\--

_Oliver's family was perfect in Sebastian's eyes._

_His Dad, Alexander Connors II, owned half the banks in New York and held major shares in many investments all over the city, and still, his top priority was his family. His wife Julianna owned an art gallery next to the Met and together they had three children of whom Oliver was the youngest._

_Donovan, the firstborn, was ten years older than Oliver and the smart one in the family, or at least that was what Sebastian had taken from Donovan being called 'brainiac' by literally everyone in the Connors clan. Donovan had finished high school a year early and then flown through college and med school with flying honors and praises left and right, was now working for one of the best hospitals in the country._

_Donovan was also the best big brother ever and not only to Oliver but to Thad, Rob and Sebastian as well._

_Lydia, the secondborn and only girl, was six years older than Oliver and was currently still in college with a degree in law and humanitarian aid. She was one of the most elegant graceful people Sebastian knew who could still at the same time kick her brothers' asses in Lacrosse._

_Rob's father was Alexander Connors' younger brother, and though Rob held his mother's name instead of the Connors family name – his father and mother never having been married – he was still Alexander's and Julianna's much loved nephew and the Connors siblings' cousin. Rob's father Jonathan was a law enforcement agent in one of the alphabet agencies but Sebastian already knew from experiences that he dropped everything if his son needed him._

_Neither Alexander nor Jonathan had until now missed a single homegame of Lacrosse at Dalton if one of their sons or nephews had been playing. Neither had they not turned up for a show choir competition._

\--

Dinner was a quieter affair that night than usual, everyone was exhausted from the last two days and the ones holding up the brunt of conversations were Donovan, whose job had taught him to handle sleep deprivation, and Lydia who had held up the homefront. Sebastian was glad when he found his appetite again over a well homecooked meal by the Connors' cook, a fifty-four year old Lebanese woman who was eternally convinced everyone was too thin.

It also brought the added advantage that Donovan stopped looking at him once he saw him eat.

There was a no phones rule at the dinner table, during all family gatherings really, and Julianna had eagle eyes on it, which meant that actual conversations usually happened. Things were talked about in this family, the good and the bad.

"He's gonna call if there is a decision, right?" Rob spoke up once the main course had been finished and they were waiting for dessert, "I mean, good or bad, we want to know." At the head of the table, Alexander sighed, it couldn't be easy for him, a former Dalton boy himself, someone who had sent his sons to Dalton to get an upscale education in a safe environment, especially Oliver. Sebastian didn't know what exactly had happened roughly ten years ago when Dalton had been hit by another scandal while Donovan had been a student.

All they had ever gotten out of Donovan for the story was a wave of attempted suicides that had all been linked back to one student.

"I have no doubt that your father will call me the second a decision has been reached. Or if any news about the prosecution of Hunter Clarington and his minions will move along. And the moment what I know, you will know as well, I promise you, Rob." Alexander gave his word about it and Rob nodded, "Until then I don't want you, boys, to think too much about it. Get better, talk about what happened if you want to and focus on the home assignments once they get through."

"And boys, no one gets into contact with anyone from the New Directions." Julianna sent in after and they all looked at her, "If they contact any of you, you do not answer, delete their messages or ignore them. I do not want any legal mess until this is solved. They are the ones who handed in the steroids alert, they're the ones profitting from it. No contact until solutions are reached." Affirmations came from all three of them, even Thad agreed but Sebastian had a follow-up thought to it, thinking about the facebook messages that by now popped up regularly.

"What about former members?" Oliver wanted to know as if sensing his thoughts and though Thad and Rob raised an eyebrow, they didn't say anything.

"Are they in close contact with the current ones?" Julianna asked him right back, just as the maid brought in rice pudding, Sebastian was surprised when his stomach gave a cry of want, want, want, next to him Oliver shifted in excitement. Over christmas they had almost ate their body weight in rice pudding.

"They're like a bunch of incestuous worms, Mum," Oliver mentioned casually, instinctively dodging the foot that Sebastian tried to kick him with. "They gossip harder about each other than the Warblers or Dalton ever could among ourselves." Julianna blinked, exchanged a look with her husband and then turned towards her son again, he knew her attitude towards the public school system and the Mid-Western states in general.

"Just be careful."

\--

"Did Blaine text you?" Rob asked literally the second he had closed Oliver's door behind them, they had gone up after dinner, intend to talk or just be together before going to bed. Oliver made a face where he plopped down on his bed, pulling Sebastian down on it as well and leaving Rob and Thad to take the couch.

"Why would Blaine text me?" Oliver asked Rob right back, "Just to remind everyone, I'm the person with the least connections to Blaine. We weren't friends. I hung out with him because he was your roommate, Rob. If Blaine texts me, those messages would go unreadadly deleted, he betrayed us." Oliver argued and the slumped back into Sebastian's arms with a pout when Sebastian pulled on his arm.

They were acting awfully couply, Sebastian knew it, and Thad's look spoke volumes about his opinion, but Sebastian wanted the closeness right now.

"I'm just wondering where your sudden idea over one of the New Directions contacting us comes from," Rob pointed out, Thad and Sebastian kept quiet, the cousins could get into it and you were safest on the sidelines, "Like you said, you've never been Blaine's biggest fan. Thad and I haven't had contact at all with him since I admittedly blew up a little too hard against him post Regionals last year. He didn't even look my way when Hunter lured him to Dalton to get the fucking trophy back. And Sebas..." Rob stopped and leaned forward, pinning Sebastian down with a look, "Did Blaine text _you_? Because that would be more ballsy than I would ever give him credit for."

Sebastian shook his head and pulled out his phone, 'Oliver asked because of Santana', he wrote out quickly and Rob gave a sound of understanding, 'And no, she hasn't written yet. It's been two days, I doubt any of them know yet.'

"They'll know the second the Warblers get disqualified," Thad said after seeing Sebastian's words on Rob's phone, "The decision will come in quick, and the New Directions might be granted permission to continue on to Regionals in your place."

"Barely the right decision," Oliver admitted and pushed a hand through his hair, "Maybe it was only half the group who voluntarily took the steroids but we didn't deserve that win, and neither did they, they broke rules as well."

"Well, now we'll never have a chance again." Rob concluded a little downtrodden, "And I wonder if any Warblers of future generations will have a chance again. This could ruin everything." He groaned and fell back into the couch, eyes glancing down to his phone, "Seb, you're okay, right? I know being supportive and all is important but the not talking part is driving me insane."

"Rob!"

"I mean it in the most caring, most understanding and supporting way possible. I'm scared shitless here, and you two," he glanced from Oliver to Thad and back again, "You two are taking this way too calm, you cannot possibly tell me that you're totally fine."

"We're not," Thad tried to calm him down again, soothing hands stroking over Rob's arm and trying to take his hand but Rob wrenched himself away, jumping to his feet to drag both hands through his hair, "None of us is okay, Rob, but you cannot blame Olli for not wanting to talk about it, or Bas for not wanting or not being able to talk at all."

"I'm not blaming anyone!" Rob snapped and it wasn't anger that rolled over him, it was fear and despair joining into hysteria, "I would never blame anyone here but I stumbled upon my friends being beaten into pulps," he yelled, shaking hands turning into fists at his side, Oliver grabbed Sebastian's hand, held on, "I was running late from class for the first time in my goddamn life and I came upon this entire mess when they were already preening themselves! Jeff was screaming because Henry had just smashed a bottle against his knee! Daniel was unconscious, Nick was half in and half out of the window and there was so much blood..."

Thad was slowly getting to his feet while it just poured out of Rob and Sebastian thought he heard steps stopping outside of Oliver's door.

"There was so much fucking blood and I couldn't even see Olli and Seb, and then Henry was there with that freaking bottle and I didn't even think...I just took him down and it makes me sick of how easy it was. And then Tobias and Jake were next and I saw Olli...and Hunter was looming over Sebastian with that bloody needle and I...I don't know what happened next...the next thing I remember is pinning Hunter to the ground and kicking the needle away. And screaming for help."

Rob sacked into Thad's arms when he was done, fight drained out of him, and let himself be pulled back onto the couch, outside the door steps continued on.

The silence that then descended upon them was broken when a phone buzzed and Thad fumbled to get his out, he read over what text had come in and then smiled, breathing out a happy sigh.

"What is it?" Oliver wanted to know quietly, his fingers were tapping away the rhythm to a One Republic song on Sebastian's arm and Sebastian couldn't find the lyrics in his head for the full chorus. It was mildly annoying.

"Jeremy," Thad said, showing his phone to Rob before looking up, "Nick was discharged, they're flying down to Cali tomorrow morning." They all breathed out in deep relief, "And he says that Hunter and his goons will remain in police custody until the hearing on Thursday."

"Sounds like Uncle Jon flashed around the badge," Oliver chuckled and then rearranged himself so he was lying down with his head in Sebastian's lap, "Let's hope they'll get trialed real good."

"Well," Thad went on after his phone had just then let in another message, "Considering that Seb' Dad finally appeared..." Sebastian snapped his head up in shock, "I'd say we're looking at their asses either directly landing behind bars or in the roughest reform school the US has to offer."

Rob and Oliver stared at Thad, just as surprised as Sebastian who kept on gaping even when Thad looked up again.

"What?"

Sebastian poked Oliver to speak for him, just knowing he would know what to ask.

"Smythe got involved? Like actually turned up in Westerville with an agenda and interest and all? The fuck?"

Perfect.

"Your Mum called him, you know that already. Because of the whole medical responsibility and all? And because she wanted to tell him Sebastian got hurt, got attacked." Thad explained and looked mighty confused over why they looked puzzled, "I know he's not the greatest Dad but what were you thinking he was gonna do? Just sit back and ignore it? His son got attacked. By a fellow student. In a school where things like this aren't supposed to happen."

"He didn't care last year." Rob pointed out a little helplessly and Sebastian tried to come to terms with it himself, Rob was right, his father hadn't cared last year, not that Sebastian would have appreciated him sticking his nose into his business when he had been very well dealing with it on his own.

"When Sebastian got us into some stupid childish show choir war with McKinley? Blaine and the slushy, that was an accident. Hunter and the needle? That was assault with intent, aggravated assault even, or at least I heard Lydia use that word earlier." Thad continued with his explanation and then smiled when Olli yawned, "We should head over, Rob, get a shower in and then go to bed. Been a long day again." Rob agreed and they silently left after saying goodnight, Sebastian made no move to leave his position on the bed.

Leaned back into Olli's mountain of pillows. Olli's head in his lap. His fingers in Olli's hair.

The silence around them was not uncomfortable, quite on the contrary, it was exactly the peace that Sebastian needed right now.

And they were watching each other, no piercing stares, just looking, and he didn't find it too cheesy or too stereotypical to get lost in Oliver's ever warm brown eyes. He had always told himself that he wouldn't fall for it, no man would ever enchant him so much that he turned mushy, or saw the stars in people's eyes.

His sister had been taken from him by a man she had fallen so deep for. His father had been a broken man after the woman he loved so much had died.

Sebastian had sworn himself to be allergic to committment, no relationships for him, no love for him, no one would ever be able to hurt him like his mother's death had hurt his father.

Blaine had slammed a foot into that door that closed the walls around Sebastian's heart, as much as he had wanted to tap that ass, Blaine had been the first person who had managed to make a hole into the protective walls in him.

Just...as it turned out now, it hadn't been for Blaine himself.

Sebastian had been opened to the idea, eyes open now for the world around him in a completely different light and it had been Oliver who had suddenly looked so different. Blaine had taken a hammer to the walls around Sebastian's heart, Oliver's sheer presence had them all crumble.

And Oliver was now safely wrapped around Sebastian's heart, soul and mind.

He was utterly gone, and for the first time it didn't scare him anymore.

Apparently getting the shock of your life by being physically attacked and seeing your friends fall under assaults rearranged your priorities perfectly.

Oliver breathed out deeply and Sebastian smiled, trailed fingers from his hair to his ear and then down to his cheekbone, something hot erupting in his stomach when Oliver leaned into the touch.

"Stay tonight?" He whispered and Sebastian bit his lips, "I'm not gonna... We never talked about it, about what happened on New Year's...not really." Oliver reminded him, as if he still had to, Sebastian had had that conversation with himself multiple times already, "And I don't want to have that conversation right now, it's about the worst possible timing I could go for. I just don't want to be alone tonight. So...stay?" Sebastian nodded gratefully, he really didn't want to be alone either. "And unless it's making you uncomfortable..." Oliver began with a tiny little smirk, "I need help getting out of these clothes to take a shower." And he held up the cast, Sebastian rolled his eyes and tipped up Oliver's chin to get to the buttons of his shirt.

Feelings or not, Sebastian had never been someone who had trouble with nakedness, and the locker rooms at high schools changed your awkwardness levels at the latest.

\--

After both of them took their turn in the shower and then changed into comfortable clothes, Sebastian still laid awake even after Oliver had fallen asleep already. Curled up against Sebastian's back, injured arm and hand wrapped over his waist, warm and heavy and just good. Steady breaths sometimes tickling the back of Sebastian's neck.

Safe and warm like this it felt like an eternity had passed since Hunter's psycho moment instead of just two days, and he knew for sure then that they would get over it. With or without Dalton.

And maybe he would never remember just what he had seen that evening but it didn't matter, moving past it was the goal, getting better.

And he wasn't alone in it either.

Sebastian laid a hand on top of Oliver's casted wrist and smiled down at the twitching fingers that even in sleep reached for his.

"I'm falling in love with you." He whispered into the dark silence of the room and smiled when he finally closed his eyes as well, pushing his face into the pillow, "And I'm not afraid anymore."


	4. Recovery with Snark and Frenemies

This spell over Sebastian's voice didn't break over night but it gradually improved over the next days already so that on Monday, he was at least able to communicate in short sentences instead of just yes and no head movements. He still couldn't remember anyting but Donovan's colleagues at the clinic insisted that it was no cause for alarm, it would simply take more time.

Rob grouched over his crutches, Oliver insisted every inch of his skin under the cast was itching, everything was going better. They had already skyped with Jeff and Nick twice, Nick still on bedrest but doing better and Jeff fussing over him like only he could. Daniel called and kept them up to date through messages, and they all realized that this nightmare had gained them another friend.

A trial had been formed against Hunter and the other boys under his command but hadn't moved further yet because none of them came from Ohio and seemingly every homestate was arguing over prosecution rights. If the face of Rob's father and the short messages Sebastian had gotten from his own father were any indication, it was going swimmingly. And Dalton's fate was delayed until that question was answered.

But that was for fathers to debate over.

They had other problems.

"Take your nose out of that!" Rob snapped and pulled his finished essay out of Thad's curious fingers for what felt like the fifth time in the last hour. Home assignments had finally come in and with nothing better to do than drive each other crazy while the parents kept them on a tight leash still, they had all decided to get a headstart on everything.

With the ever helpful comments from Donovan (who had a free morning before an afternoon shift) and Thad (who had no classes on Mondays).

"Study your own stuff," Rob argued, cranky because you didn't cage in Rob without regretting it soon enough, crutches or not, he needed fresh air and movement and see the sky from outside a window. Thad was all used to that though and kissed the fingers that had taken back the essay, a few months ago, with Thad still in school with them, the sight of it had prompted Sebastian to roll his eyes. Rob and Thad were miles away from that tooth-ache inducing sweetness of Jeff's and Nick's eternal married-since-the-cradle status but they had their overly cute moments.

Now, things looked a bit different.

Turning back to his own Calculus book, Sebastian smiled when Oliver hooked a foot around his ankle while he was making notes for the history report he needed to write because only maniacs took AP History in Dalton.

Thad's following reply went under for Sebastian because his phone buzzed and he took it out to see, expecting a scathing comment from Nick over their shared AP Math assignments or a cry of help from Daniel because he was going through this alone but it was neither of their names that flashed up on his screen.

'Tell me you're okay.'

"Donovan," he began his question and Donovan looked up from his medical journal in the corner of the dining room, "did news drop about the steroids scandal today?"

"No," Donovan's answer was quick, frown slipping over his face, "They're still keeping it under the radar. The only official statement concerning the whole thing for now is that something happened at Dalton that is temporarily closing the school. It might be that the New Directions already know that they are taking the Warblers' place officially. Why?"

"Just wondering," Sebastian waved it away and then typed back a reply, 'Why do you think something might not be alright?' The next message came so quick that he hadn't even pulled his fingers away from the letters.

'Tell me you're okay, Sebastian!'

Alright, time to change the angle then.

'How do you know, Santana? We're not supposed to talk about it to anyone yet, it's an ongoing police investigation.'

'Britt skyped Jeff and his face cannot be hidden. Tell me you're goddamn okay, Sebastian.'

God dammit Jeff, where is your backbone?

'I'm okay.'

'That's not enough of an answer for me. How badly are you injured? What about your friends? What the hell happened?'

'Got a concussion, but healing. Oliver got one, too, broken wrist as well. Rob got a hairline fracture in his ankle. Rest is just bruises by now. And we can't tell you what happened and Jeff shouldn't either.'

'Fuck. Where are you? Jeff told Britt you went home with your two amigos but I don't know what that means. And Dalton might not reopen? What the fuck?'

'New York.'

'Alright, that nails that down then, Smythe. We're gonna meet up. Tell me when and where.'

Sebastian groaned and caught Oliver's attention, eyebrow raised and pencil halted over his notes, "Santana wants to see us." He explained and Thad and Rob froze across the table from them, "Jeff is a helpless puppy. Cannot keep his spine from breaking when Brittany's eyes are glistening at him. So she knows something. She of course called Santana and here we are." Thad facepalmed and Rob snickered, Oliver though looked about as surprised as Sebastian felt.

Sure, things with Santana had improved from mortal enemies to something he would even dare call friendship but this level of worry was still unusual.

"Who is Santana?" Donovan broke the moment completely fittingly and they both turned to look at him, it was someone else though who replied. Lydia who shouldered her way through the kitchen door with a Donut in her hand, fresh returned from her morning classes.

"She is the Smooth Criminal girl, big brother," Lydia grinned and calmly walked around the table in heels that made Sebastian's feet scream in pain from just looking at, Donovan's face lit up and Sebastian narrowed his eyes at Oliver who in lightning speed reflexes pointed over to Rob.

"Seriously?" Sebastian wanted to know and Rob shrugged his shoulders, seeing apparently nothing wrong in telling Donovan and Lydia everything.

"What's the big deal about her anyway?" Lydia broke through what could develop into an argument and sharp blue eyes that she shared with neither of her brothers but had enherited from her mother looked around their little group, "Must be quite special to have you four so hooked."

"We're not hooked," Oliver disagreed immediately, taking the words out of Sebastian's still too slow mouth, the thoughts were there, they were the old ones again, quick and sharp but the lips weren't cooperating still sometimes, "She was a part of New Directions last year, quite feisty. Think like Sebastian with boobs."

"Ey!" Sebastian complained loudly, flipping a pencil in Oliver's direction, "That is so not true." And before anyone could start listing comparisons between Santana and him, Sebastian chose to push on, stumbling over his words in his rush a little, "Can go...can we go out later? Or are we still under watch?" He wanted to know and Lydia looked to Donovan who looked from one of them to the other.

"No one is under watch here," Donovan began his answer with a total lie and all three high schoolers narrowed their eyes at him, "Alright, fine, you are under watch to ensure you are okay but I can loosen the noose a bit, convince Mum and Dad to do the same."

"If?" Oliver pushed immediately into the pause that was given and Donovan exchanged a look with Lydia who was quick to turn her attention to a flower on a shelf at her side.

"If you are honest with us. If you promise to come to us if something is bothering you." Donovan made clear and Sebastian quite uncharacteristically couldn't hold his gaze for long, "Something terrible happened to you and I know you are strong, guys, but this isn't something you can only handle on your own. So promise me right now that you will find someone to talk to if it gets too much."

Oliver and Rob agreed quickly but they had also been raised to talk about feelings, about problems and fears. Sebastian had only ever learned to keep it silent.

"I promise, too," he said nevertheless after a longer moment, knowing that he could trust Donovan, trust Lydia and trust Oliver's parents and Rob's father.

"Well then," Lydia spoke up again while Donovan smiled in gratitude, "Big Brother unclipped the leash, I would say either ask her to meet in a cafe off the tourist spots or ask her to come here."

"Here?" Oliver croaked out in a voice that got a little too high, Sebastian raised an eyebrow at him, already raising his phone to write Santana back.

"Why, of course, little brother. Donovan has to get to work soon, so you'll be rid of the responsible adult and I got a study date back on campus in two hours and Mum won't be home until dinner." Lydia made clear and then grinned like the cat who got the cream served in a golden bowl, "And it's not like we would have to worry about anything happening anyway, isn't that right, little brother?"

Oliver blushed scarlet and Sebastian smirked into his collar while Thad and Rob snickered and Donovan rolled his eyes over his sister's victorious face.

"I'll let her decide," Sebastian chose before anyone could dig deeper though and he shot off another message to Santana, 'Cafe of your choice or I'll send you the address to the Connors' place.' Once more the response came in quick.

'Spotlight Diner?'

'I can't deal with Hummel or Berry right now, Santana.'

Quite the open admittance of weakness but Sebastian just couldn't even swallow the thought of coming face to face with Kurt Hummel right now.

He was okay, he was letting himself develop something with Oliver, no Hummel welcomed in this bubble at all.

"And I can't deal with singing barista, Seb." Oliver offered up from his side, having caught sight of the messages because Sebastian's phone was now lying on the table between their homework.

'Spotlight Diner has been vetoed.'

'You silver spoon kids are too fussy. Fine. Send me the address. I'll come by after my shift ends. Around 4?'

Sebastian sent her the address and agreed to the time, and then didn't jump at all when he went back to his math book and a hand was set upon his knee, squeezing once before just resting on it.

\--

Santana was perfectly on time, half an hour after Oliver had chased a rather overly curious Donovan from the house to finally get to work. Her punctuality wasn't the surprise, it was her immediately going for a freaking hug one step past the threshold and one second after Oliver had closed the door again.

"What are you doing?" Sebastian wanted to know but also hugged her back on instinct alone, catching Oliver's half amused, half secretly jealous eyes where he had leaned against the wall next to the front door. Thad and Rob were thankfully waiting in the living room.

"I'm giving comfort, you jerk. Take it." Santana snarked against his shoulder and Sebastian gave a huff, squeezed her one more time before gently but determinedly pushing her away to arm's length again. Santana scrutinized him from head to toe, "You look about only half as bad as Jeff made me think."

"You say the nicest things."

"You though," and she turned to Oliver with a flair, "You look about as beaten as the golden puppy described." Santana noted and Oliver gave her a cutting smile that was more challenge to say more nice things than threat. "Where is the little spitfire? I heard he was attacked by a fucking glass bottle?" She took off her jacket and blinked when a maid suddenly materialized at her side to take it and her shoes right along with it. Oliver and Sebastian simply smirked at her when she turned a raised eyebrow towards them.

"Jeff wasn't supposed to say anything."

"So this does have something to do with the Warblers being disqualified? What the bloody hell happened, guys?" Santana pushed at the walls of silence when Sebastian gestured for her to walk towards the one open door at the end of the corridor, "All I heard...from Hummel by the way, so hail to that I guess, he's of course all up in flames over it...is that the New Directions are back on for Regionals because the Warblers got disqualified for breaking the rules. I tried to weasel Blaine into saying something, but he's blocking off hardcore," she said just as they entered the living room, Thad and Rob looking up from where they had gotten comfortable on the bigger couch, "which makes me wonder."

"There is a legal investigation going on. My parents want us to keep the people knowing to a minimum." Oliver explained and in a show of his rather known green eyed issues, he pulled Sebastian onto the second couch with himself, uninjured arm landing around Sebastian's shoulders. Possessive much? Santana hardly gave them a long enough look before sitting down, she knew anyway, had seen it weeks ago, Sebastian had those emails saved still.

For whatever reason.

"I'm not included in that minimum?" Santana wanted to know, sitting down in the armchair that Sebastian associated the most with Lydia reading in the evening while Donovan and Alexander roped them into card games, TV running in the background.

"That's a loaded question." Rob noted, exchanging a greeting grin with Santana, he was splayed out over the couch, injured foot raised up on Thad's cross-legged lap.

"Listen, I promise I won't tell anyone." Santana promise, even raised a hand to her heart, "No one aside from Britt knows that I'm even friends with you. Haven't I proven that you can trust me?" And she looked to Sebastian the most, it had been him who had been in sole contact with her for the longest time before she had been drawn into what was his circle of friends, only helped by the friendship that Jeff and Brittanny had cooked up without anyone realizing really.

"She's got a point." Sebastian offered up and pressed his leg against Oliver's in a silent prompt to agree, he knew that Oliver liked Santana even if the green eyed monster somehow roared louder around her than any attractive boys in Dalton, no matter how many times Sebastian insisted that girls were really not doing it for him.

"Who wants to do the honors then?" Oliver asked into the round and Sebastian saw how Santana took a deep breath and leaned back into the chair.

"Probably one of you, or the story will be very short." He admitted when Thad and Rob glanced over to him, Oliver squeezed his shoulder and Santana raised an eyebrow upon hearing his words.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She wanted to know, nose scrunched up, delicate fingernails tipping away on her knee.  
"Seb can't remember." Oliver got out with the truth and the tapping of nails immediately stopped, Santana's whole composure froze.

"Excuse me?"

"It's okay," Sebastian hurried to assure her, "Doctors say it might come back. Nothing to worry about." He was not going to tell her just now that he had had trouble talking since the incident. And whatever remainder of it still persisted in his head was easily covered up by Thad, Oliver and Rob, of whom the latter two launched into telling Santana what they knew. He watched her while she listened, Oliver's fingers playing with the fabric of his sleeve.

Santana showed the emotions he expected from her, the shock, the surprise, the anger and when it was all said and done, she raised a hand to lay over her face, breathing out a deep sigh.

"Oh dios mio." She whispered and they all gave her a smile when she looked up again, "I'm really glad you got out of that looking like this. And please tell me that Clarington will see a trial?"

"Bas' father will make sure of it." Thad replied and Santana looked over to Sebastian with surprise, he smirked and nodded, yeah, was a shocker for him, too.

"And Blaine gave you zero warning? He can't be thinking that you took the steroids, too," Santana mused but was met with three blank faces and Thad's careful smile, "Seriously? God, it's Hummel and Berry, I swear, they got him all wrapped up in their net. Break-up or not, the guy is still Hummel's puppet."

"Let's not talk about it," Rob decided for all of their sake's, "I'd prefer hearing why you're in New York. Last time we heard from you, you were still very much in Kentucky." Santana grinned a little, leaned back in her chair again.

"That didn't work out for me."

"So, where are you staying now?" Thad wanted to know and Sebastian knew exactly what the answer was going to be upon Santana's slightly annoyed face, Thad did as well, "Oh please don't tell me it's with Hummel and Berry..."

"It was the cheapest choice." Santana explained, unease and frustration over it showing quite easy and Sebastian caught her eyes for a long moment, asking himself how desperate she had been to escape to New York that rooming up with the horror twin divas sounded like a good idea.

Thad apparently saw it quite similar.

"Should have said something, I would have given you my guest room anytime. Still would, if you need to escape from that potential hell." He offered up and Santana smiled at him in gratitude.

"That means a lot, but for now I'm good with the terrible two." Santana answered him and Sebastian resisted the urge to ask what those two were doing now, he was lowkey interested in it but also didn't want to ruin his good mood.

"What are you up to then in the city?" Rob went right on with the question game and Santana would have surely answered happily but a voice calling out a "little brother" in a cheery over-the-top tone from the foyer had Oliver groan and jump to his feet to intercept Lydia. Both of them turned up in the living room not a minute later, Oliver looking slightly pained.

"You don't have to do this," Sebastian caught the tailend of whatever whining protest Oliver had used to hold Lydia back from embarassing him, something she loved to achieve with both her brothers.

"What kind of sister would I be if I didn't meet my little brother's friends," Lydia hummed and cut off whatever sarcastic reply had been on Oliver's lips already, "Santana, I presume?" Lydia turned towards the only other freaking female person in the room, bright smile on her face. "I have heard a great many interesting facts about you."

"I wish I could say the same. Connors never mentioned he had a sister." Santana replied to her with a cutting smile sent in a glowering Oliver's direction, Lydia raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

"Did he now? Isn't that interesting," Lydia began, lips curling up even more as she neatly sank down into the last remaining armchair, crossing one leg over the other. Sebastian caught Oliver's eyes and shrugged, not willing to go against Lydia when curiosity burned hard. Oliver rolled his eyes and walked back over to him, sinking under Sebastian's arm this time.

\--

"They're nice people," Santana commented when Sebastian helped her into her coat later, only the two of them in the entrance corridor, "You found a good place for yourself, Sebastian."

"Don't get sentimental on me. Please don't." Sebastian told her with a mild smirk and Santana lightly slapped a hand against his upper arm.

"Me, getting emotional? Never, Smythe. I'm just glad you're in good hands after whatever happened." Santana said cryptically and flipped up the collar of her coat and her hair out of it in one move, "And just so we're clear, the second this story goes public, I will hear a warning. From you or your amigos. I want to be prepared before Hummel or Berry start gloating."

"I promise," he drawled while rolling his eyes, opening the front door for Santana, "And you don't let Hummel and Berry drive you crazy. Thad was serious with his offer."

"Trust me, Smythe, those two will never outlive me." Santana promised darkly and then waved one last time before walking down the stairs, flagging down a cab before she had even reached the pavement. He waited until the cab took off before he closed the door again and turned back around, smirking immediately at seeing Oliver standing at the end of the small corridor, arms crossed over his chest.

"Your jealousy really needs a reality check."

"Maybe my jealousy needs a bit of affection," Oliver hit back easily, serious lips twitching for a moment before curling up into a smile that warmed up Sebastian's heart.

"Hm," he hummed and stopped his feet a few inches from Oliver's, a hand reaching up to brush a strand of hair out of his face, "I don't know, maybe I actually like the possessiveness." Oliver grinned and set both hands upon Sebastian's hips.

"If you want, we..."

"If you're done flirting up a hurricane again, we could finally start with the movie!" Rob bellowed over from the living room and they both groaned but Oliver also leaned in, brushed his lips against the ever tender spot on Sebastian's neck and whispered "Come and stay with me tonight" into his ear. Sebastian nodded and then pulled Oliver off to the living room.

\--

The night after meeting up with Santana, Sebastian woke up once more in Oliver's bed, Oliver's arm draped around his waist and their legs mingling under the blanket. Oliver was seemingly deep asleep when Sebastian turned around to look at him, face lax and soft, lips apart slightly.

It was nothing special, nothing extraordinary.

That was what they would tell people later, their friends, their families.

The story of how they got together, it was simple but it was beautiful.

Sebastian reached up with his right hand and stroked some wayward strand of hair out of Oliver's face, his fingers trailing down over cheekbone and jaw, and then he simply leaned forward and kissed him. Oliver's eyes fluttered open when Sebastian pulled back again after a moment, breathy sigh escaping his lips as he came more awake, and then he was smiling.

Bright and beautiful and perfect.

He didn't say anything and Sebastian didn't want anything to be said, it could wait until later, and he happily closed his eyes when Oliver pushed his hand from his back up to his neck, pulling him in for another kiss, this one deeper, longer. It was so easy to get lost in him, to let go and just fall. When they pulled back again for a moment to catch their breaths, smiles turned into grins and then Oliver rolled onto his back just as much as Sebastian gently pushed him, swinging a leg over his hips and diving in for a whole new kiss.

And there was nothing innocent about this one anymore.

Oliver groaned and both of his hands landed in Sebastian's hair, roughing it up a little.

"We're gonna talk this time," Oliver managed to speak between two moans when Sebastian kissed his way away from Oliver's lips, over his jaw down to his neck, "Later." He added as an afterthought almost and then stroked his uninjured hand down Sebastian's back until he could rug up his shirt. "Help me with this... Seb, please..." Oliver's gasped out plea had Sebastian's desire to kiss every inch of him and never stop or take a pause.

He sat back on his haunches and pulled off the shirt he wore for sleeping and Oliver gasped again, even though he had seen Sebastian shirtless plenty of times before. Sebastian smirked and crooked a finger, wordlessly asking Oliver to sit up as well, Oliver grinned and followed suit, letting Sebastian take off his shirt and then push him back down into the mattress. Flesh touched flesh and they let their hands greedily wander over exposed skin, sinking back down onto the bed.

**\--**

Crowding close against Oliver's body, ignoring sweat and everything else cooling on their skin now, Sebastian panted and grinned against the other one's shoulder. Bone deep satisfied and happy. Especially when Oliver turned his head and pressed his equally grinning face against the side of Sebastian's head. He slung his arm around Oliver's still quickly rising and falling chest, in turn Oliver made a similar move with his leg and Sebastian's thigh.

"I want to have that conversation now, just like this," Oliver told him softly and kissed Sebastian's ear, "because frankly, I can't just have a taste of this once." Sebastian laughed because he was nearly high on endorphines and his hands fit so perfectly against warm skin.

"I think I'm done with no attachment." He therefore went right to the point and prompted Oliver to basically jump back from him to prop himself up on one hand, warm brown eyes staring down at him in pure astonishment and unmasked hope.

"That..." he visibly fought for words and Sebastian grinned, reaching up to push a rebellious strand of hair out of Oliver's face, "Wow. Don't get me wrong, hell yeah, I'm here for it, here for you, but it's still a surprise that it comes that... easy from you." Oliver admitted and Sebastian chuckled, warm and loose and yes, fussy. And they hadn't even truly had full on sex yet, had just gotten each other off and god, he couldn't even imagine how it would feel after sex.

"A lot happened." Sebastian pointed out because it just was the truth, he wasn't the guy anymore who had started at Dalton, hating everyone and everything, hiding so desperately how lonely he was, seeking power and admiration to get rid of feeling abandoned. Oliver shifted down until he was propped up on one elbow on his side, free hand drawing patterns on Sebastian's chest.

"A certain _someone_ happened." He held against it and Sebastian grimaced, because that wasn't a topic he really wanted to approach just now, not when they had just finally found towards each other.

"No..." he said hence but when he met Oliver's eyes he went back on it again right away, "well yeah, maybe, but it's not like you think it to be now. He," and yeah they still weren't speaking his name out loud, maybe it was getting a little bit ridiculous and handing a bit too much power into the guy's hands. "I liked him, yes, that's true. I liked him a little more than just becoming another name in my non-existent black book but, and that's what you need to hear here, Olli, he most of all showed me that those things... relationships, being in love, all those fussy feelings, it wasn't as scary and terrifying as it had previously looked like."

Blaine had given him courage.

"So... he opened your eyes to the idea?" Oliver showed that he understood just perfectly and his fingers traced a path up Sebastian's neck, over his jaw to his lips.

"He opened my eyes to see you." Sebastian answered him with a smile, sucking on a finger when Oliver gently pushed it against his bottom lip, brown eyes darkened.

"Oh," was the only thing Oliver could produce in a reply and he showed his appreciation in a more physical way when he leaned in to kiss Sebastian's forehead.

"I know it's a fucked up thing to say but after he forgave me for the slushy last year, I couldn't even see him anymore, all I saw was you." Sebastian explained further, he still remembered like it was yesterday how he had looked up after Blaine had shaken his hand up on that stage and he had caught sight of Oliver watching them. And it was for the first time that he had discovered Oliver's eyes to not just be coated in worry for a friend but raging jealousy as well. When he told Oliver as much now he found himself manhandled into a hug, Oliver spread out beneath him, and still Sebastian felt the smaller one, the one protected, the one comforted.

"Fuck, Seb..."

"I want to make this work, Olli," he said because he wanted to, because he needed to speak it out, as much as he wanted the sex, he wanted Oliver more, all of him, the good sides, the annoying parts. He wanted the jealousy, the territorial possessiveness, he wanted this relationship.

"Me, too." Oliver told him with a blinding smile, happiness radiating from him like a beacon. "And I'll be patient, I'll give you space, I promise you. We'll take this one day at a time until you are truly comfortable with relationships and committment." Oliver insisted and promised and swore and he caught Sebastian's lips in a kiss, he was the one who had had a relationship before, twice even, and both times he had gotten burned so it meant a lot that he was opening himself now to however much Sebastian could give him without getting overwhelmed.

"I know, boyfriend."

"I like the sound of that." Oliver almost purred and nudged Sebastian's chin up with a finger to deepen the kiss until they needed to break apart again for air. They wrapped themselves around each other until they couldn't be sure anymore where one started and the other ended and then they fell back asleep, bone deep content.


	5. Best Friends and Boyfriends

Sebastian blinked open still sleepy eyes when something tickled his nose and he scrunched it up before moving slightly higher, only to get a face full of fluffy hair. He gave some kind of sneeze-sniff hybrid and turned his head away from Oliver's hair, jaw cracking as he yawned. The clock on the nightstand read eight something because Oliver's shirt was covering the minutes.

Despite of that inconvenience it was still late enough to get up before someone decided to check on them or get them for breakfast, Sebastian couldn't decide whom he wanted at the door the least while they were wearing nothing and had the duvet only wrapped around their legs.

"Olli," he whispered into the darkness of the bedroom because Oliver was allergic to even a sliver of light in the night if he wanted to sleep, the body still pressed close to his grunted, "come on, we can't sleep the day away."

Oliver could if someone were to give him the chance and his own bed here at home.

New York had always had the ability to turn Oliver into half a sloth.

Oliver sighed in dramatics then and rolled away from Sebastian, right onto the cold previously uninhabited left side of the bed. He yelped and hurriedly rugged up the duvet and crowding close to a snickering Sebastian again. "I fucking hate you," Oliver grumbled and Sebastian apologized with a finger to tilt up Oliver's chin, just enough so he could kiss him. Oliver smiled right into it and then broke away in the next moment to yawn. "God, I can't believe you woke me up at the asscrack of dawn."

"It's..." Sebastian started and then flung out an arm to brush the shirt off the clock so he could actually see the exact time, "it's nearly nine, for crying out loud, Olli."

"And it's the weekend, hence asscrack of dawn," Oliver complained and then smushed his face right back against Sebastian's chest. "If you wanna go and run, then find Thad, I'm not moving." Sebastian had no desire to go running, Rob sometimes could coax him out in Ohio winter, only to complain one hundred percent of the time over the cold but here in New York, post late winter blizzard, Sebastian was not going running if he didn't have to.

And with Rob incapacitated, he had the best excuse, it would only be unfair to his best friend if he kept up a routine now.

"I can't just lie around, Olli, I can't melt into my bed like you." He pointed out though because he could in fact already feel the buzzing in his limbs as his body and mind both continued to wake up.

"Not my problem," Oliver mumbled and he was already half to sleepiland again so Sebastian played a little dirty and raked fingernails down Oliver's naked back over to his waist. The brunet hissed and twitched away from tickling fingers, glaring down at Sebastian with betrayed honey eyes.

"Fine, I'm awake."

Sebastian snorted and slipped out of bed, completely shamelessly helping himself to Oliver's closet and some fresh clothes, if Oliver's appreciating look was any indication he had certainly nothing against it. Wearing his clothes was the same as pinning a sign to Sebastian's forehead, 'property of Oliver Connors', and of course Oliver would get hot over it. It was weird how a gesture like this was something he desired now, where only a year ago he had rolled his eyes so hard over Nick doing the same with Jeff's hoodies that he had given himself a headache.

He really wasn't that same douchebag anymore.

"Hey, what are we gonna do with the others?" He wanted to know along that line of thought as he finished buttoning up the light blue shirt and then pulled up stuff for Oliver to wear, throwing it over to the bed where his fresh new boyfriend was dragging his injured hand through his messed up bed hair. Sebastian bit his lips at the sight because god damn, it would be so easy to jump straight back into bed for this guy.

"Depends on what you wanna do," Oliver yawned and unfortunately started getting dressed, even if he was still not awake enough to not stumble when he tried to get into both pant legs at the same time with only one functioning hand. Sebastian caught his elbow and kept him on his feet, grabbing the hem of the back of Oliver's jeans and pulling them over his ass.

"I don't want to keep you, let alone us a secret." Sebastian also clarified and smiled into the quick kiss that Oliver set onto his lips before he walked off into the ensuite bathroom. "But I am not going to leave this room screaming into the world that Sebastian Smythe got shackled down into a relationship."

"I didn't shackle you into anything, you were willing," Oliver called out before water started running at the sink, Sebastian rolled his eyes and busied himself with picking up the clothes from yesterday, throwing them into the laundry bin. "Very willing in fact. And shockingly submissive, I sincerely thought I would have to put up more of a fight to get you there." Oliver laughed over his own cheek and Sebastian looked over towards the bathroom door when the water had stopped running, Oliver appeared with a smirk on his face, red shirt still unbuttoned.

"You went from cranky to cocky in like one minute flat, that's a new record," Sebastian deadpanned at him in response and stalked over to him, Oliver's smirk only grew and he leaned against the doorframe. Without being asked Sebastian began to close the buttons of his shirt, smiling when Oliver's eyes followed the movement of his fingers until his face got cupped on both sides to be pulled into another quick kiss. "So, what do we do?"

"We'll just let it happen," Oliver proposed and interwined his un-casted fingers with Sebastian's right one, "we'll go down there and just act like we want to. I don't think it's gonna come as a surprise to them, Seb." No, it probably wouldn't, Rob and Thad had been hinting at too much in the last weeks, even though even they hadn't known about the New Year's kiss. Donovan and Lydia, if around this morning, were way too perceptive to not see that something had changed, and Alexander and Julianna weren't stupid either.

"Alright," Sebastian agreed with the plan and then tugged Oliver into moving.

\--

They made two steps into the dining room, Rob caught sight of them, exclaimed "Goddamn finally" and that was it.

The only thing that followed were smiles and Julianna chewing Rob out for his language.

\--

"As a consequence the Dalton Academy Warblers have been relieved of their Sectionals title, retroactively disqualified and further more banned from all future show choir competition within the US." Donovan set his phone down and looked into the round, Sebastian briefly met his eyes and then looked from Oliver to Rob and back again. It wasn't like they knew this hadn't been coming and still, hearing it so official made their stomachs twist up anyway.

Their decision to not do more had caused all future Warbler generations to lose a chance at something that had in the past brought the club so much honor and admiration. They might not have actively helped in this drug scandal but they also hadn't done more than saying no in preventing or revealing it. It brought a sour taste to his mouth now.

"Bans can be lifted," Donovan was the first who spoke again after a long moment of silence, it was the tailend of breakfast. Lydia and Thad had left for classes, Alexander had gone into work and Julianna had stepped out with the maid to complete a list for the grocery shopping that needed to be done. "Vocal Adrenaline was banned in the fifties, don't ask me why, I never listened much when my Council went on tangents about Warbler history." Oliver's big brother, their universal big brother by now really, told them with a smile, a try at comforting three frustrated teenagers. "They got reinstated after good behavior a few years later. This doesn't mean the Warblers are done."

"Did they say anything about Dalton in the statement?" Rob wanted to know and stopped pushing his eggs around the plate, Sebastian curled his hand around the one of a still silent Oliver who was doing his best to stare his toast into submission.

"Basically a hint towards Dalton being under investigation by the state of Ohio but they don't say why," Donovan answered his cousin and his eyes focused solely on his brother, bearing down on Oliver as he continued. "They don't mention the drugs, probably for the same legal reasons. They only state 'rule breaking' as grounds for everything. Olli, say something."

"Is there," and Oliver cleared his throat when his voice came out a little heavy, Sebastian squeezed his fingers, especially because Oliver still didn't look up. "Be honest with me, Don, do you see any way how we could have prevented it?"

"No," Donovan's response came as quick as a gunshot and Oliver looked up in reaction, "No, there isn't. If you three had stepped out or threatened to go to the teachers with it, threatened to reveal Clarington's ploy, I have no doubt that Clarington would have found blackmail on you, too. All three of you have skeletons in the closet, you know that, things that could have been used against you. You chose to not take the steroids, to still stick around and do your best to ensure that Clarington didn't hurt anybody even more despite the dangers it brought along. Stop beating yourself up over it, Olli, look forward now."

Rob's buzzing phone broke the pause that had fallen over them then while Oliver and Donovan stared at each other, and as Rob went to look at his messages, Oliver nodded at his brother and then picked up his toast.

"It's David," Rob groaned a second later, "wants to know what the fuck is going on. Figures that it only hits him now, London isn't really center of the gossip circles."

"Tell him that you can't say anything," Oliver grouched and ripped his toast in two, Sebastian knew that Oliver and David had never truly seen eye to eye, something had happened there previously to him coming to Dalton and he had never gotten to the bottom of it. "If David wants to know more he can call Wesley or go straight to the one who threw us into the fire."

David Thompson had never been Sebastian's fan, and thus the gap between Oliver and him had turned into a canyon over the last year, and even Rob who got along well with anybody really hadn't tried to mend any bridges there. It also didn't help that David had proven himself to blindingly loyal to Blaine and freaking Kurt Hummel that it had been ridiculous really, even Wesley Montgomery – the boy who had led the Warblers for years before Sebastian came back to the US – had seen Hummel for what he was in the end.

Someone who took opportunities over loyalty.

"And here is one from Jeff and Nick," Rob ignored Oliver's temporary angry state and brushed right over it, "they wanna know if we want to skype later." Rob read out and Oliver and Sebastian both agreed to it because hearing from them would be good. Seeing that Nick was doing better instead of just hearing about it would no doubt do wonders to the guilt still sometimes churning in Sebastian's gut.

As Donovan wrapped Rob up into a conversation over this and that then, Oliver finished eating his toast and let his sock covered toes gently rub up and down Sebastian's right ankle. Sebastian continued on his coffee, the one cup they were allowed here for breakfast, and traced some random patterns on Oliver's bared lower left arm. They soothed themselves out of the dark states of mind the news had dropped them into, even without saying a word.

And that was why this fit so well, they could read each other, they knew what the other needed and they knew even better that words weren't always appreciated.

The world of show choir craziness knew now that the Warblers had done something truly bad, the New Directions knew the truth, knew that despite their own mistakes they would arise the winner in the end. The same post that informed about the Warblers' disqualification and ban had informed about the New Directions being awarded the win.

Which made absolutely no fucking sense to Sebastian.

The New Directions had been disqualified for rule-breaking as well, for all intents and purposes the victory should have been awarded to the Rosedale Mennonites who had been the only ones not having done anything wrong that day. Apparently though whistleblowers got the reward regardless of what they had done.

If anyone came forward and called the New Directions the underdog winning against all odds, Sebastian was gonna pop something vital. Nationals winners weren't underdogs anymore, and after everything he had learned by now the New Directions were worse in bending the rules and backstabbing than the Warblers could ever dream of, even with a steroids scandal to their name now.

It was ridiculous.

There was a temptation in him, a real temptation to write Blaine, to ask why, to ask how it felt now to have won while people who had once been his friends were hurting. To tell him everything about what had happened after he hadn't even for a second thought about what could happen once he went to the authorities with the evidence he had found. He wanted to ask him why he hadn't approached any of them first, most of all Nick and Jeff, how he could have thought that all of them were just going along with it and not forced?

He didn't pick up his phone though because there was no sense in it, Blaine's move had easily shown that the friendship Sebastian thought they had had had been worth nothing in the end.

\--

"I don't know how it is for you, guys, but we're not really hearing anything," Jeff's voice could be heard from somewhere beyond the moving skype video call screen as Jeff moved the laptop from Nick's desk to the bed where said dark haired boy was propped up on several pillows. "It's the ever loved mixtape of 'Ongoing investigation, can't talk about it', 'we don't want you to worry' and 'it's adult stuff, don't stress about it, get better', with a very special bonus track of 'we'll tell you the second we know anything.'" Jeff finished it with a very unusual snarky growl and finally settled down next to Nick, laptop now balanced on his legs, slightly turned to the side to catch both their bruised up faces.

"Yeah, we're not really getting anything different," Rob agreed with the stated sentiment and shifted his cast onto a pillow, thanks to Thad's fancy new laptop gadgets they had the skype call on the TV in the living room and hadn't needed to crowd four people onto one couch to be seen. Like this, Rob had enough room to stretch out his injured leg, Thad could keep working on his essay and Sebastian and Oliver could wrap themselves around each other on an armchair, something that Nick and Jeff had either chose to not acknowledge or really not seen yet.

"It's ridiculous," Nick spoke up, he already looked a lot better compared to the day they had visited him in the hospital before flying out to New York but one could still clearly see how he had been thrown through a window. "It's our school, isn't it? And we admittedly had a hand in how shitty this all turned out, shouldn't we get at least a word in? Or be heard over our own opinions? I'm not very keen on somebody deciding if _I_ feel safe in Dalton still." Nick scowled and Jeff leaned over to kiss his cheek, they were both still as mushy as ever and Sebastian found it cute now, no longer slightly annoying.

"Yeah, Donovan actually said something along those lines, too." Oliver mentioned a conversation they had had with his brother only this morning, Donovan wasn't happy about no one yet at least asking the boys what they wanted. "When this weird string of attempted suicides rolled over Dalton in his time, everyone was up in their faces with questions. And now? Yeah, some of us got hurt again but none of us tried to kill themselves, but now it's supposed to be over?"

Nick and Jeff nodded in understanding, Sebastian could see the defiance in them just as he knew it to be in Rob, Oliver and him. They just couldn't let Dalton pay for something they helped fuck up, there were enough boys who needed their school.

"Daniel thinks it's the drugs and whatever Clarington dug up in blackmail over some people." Jeff noted and Sebastian grimaced, they knew by now what Hunter had held over Jeff's and Nick's heads, ugly things from their past. He had no idea though what Hunter had found about others, especially boys like Daniel who slipped into cracks and shadows because he wanted to be unnoticed so hard. What skeleton could lay in a closet of innocents like Daniel Rust?

"How is Daniel?" Rob wanted to know, they had talked to the sophomore twice so far, both briefly on the phone, it seemed like Daniel's mother was keeping a tight leash on him.

"Physically doing fine again," Nick had a better answer, even incapacitated as he still was with ongoing bedrest, he remained the pack mother, Sebastian had no doubt that Nick easily kept contact with more people than he was imagining even now. "Otherwise he is lonely, he doesn't exactly have peers around his town who wouldn't beat him up if he showed his face. There was a good reason he was sent to Dalton."

"And it's exactly for boys like him why they should reopen Dalton as soon as possible," Thad spoke up for the first time since setting up the skype call, in his maybe too focused comforting of Rob, he had almost forgotten that he had an important essay due and was now spending every waking minute trying to get it done in time. "They are arguing over whether or not you'll continue being safe in Dalton but they are completely ignoring the fact that the majority of the boys are coming there because they aren't safe anywhere else."

"We told Daniel to call us anytime he needs someone to talk to," Jeff told him and he shifted himself deeper down on the bed to get more comfortable. "I may have told him that you'd be there as well," he added after a pause and sheepishly looked from one of their faces to the next. "I know you guys are the 'no outsiders allowed' gang but Daniel is kinda worshipping the ground you walk on, guys." Jeff made his excuse even though none of them had protested, Sebastian exchanged a look with Rob, Oliver and Thad, all of them smiling.

"I think that common room moment opened the doors for some outsiders to be let in," Sebastian said it himself and Jeff positively beamed, it was good to see that even Hunter and his goon's fists couldn't break the happiness in sunshine Jeff. "That goes for you two as well."

"Got it, Seb," Nick added and then stopped when it knocked on his door, he called whoever in and they were greeted to the sight of Jeff's oldest brother Jackson walking into Jeff's room. Jeff made a gesture and muted the call for the moment.

"I wonder how bedrest and home schooling feels when you're living in a beach house an hour outside of L.A.," Rob deadpanned when they all scowled at Jackson Sterling in a sleeveless shirt and bright shorts, while they were wearing thick socks and had until five minutes before this call sipped on hot chocolate.

West Coast, East Coast – sometimes it was like two different worlds.

"You'd be as frustrated there as you are here," Thad threw in without looking away from his typing, "Maybe even more because the weather is nice enough to go outside and you'd complain over not being able to walk in sand or go into the water." Rob gave a theatrical sigh and stretched out a hand towards his boyfriend to get a kiss, Oliver rolled his eyes over them and straight away grabbed Sebastian's chin to kiss him.

"Coming back with a question," Jeff reannounced himself and Sebastian looked back towards the TV screen to find hazel eyes on himself, "I thought I'll give you a chance to bring it up yourself but my curiosity is too great. When did this happen?" And he pointed a finger towards Sebastian and Oliver until Nick pushed it down.

"A few days ago," Oliver gave them as a response, his grin was sharp enough to cut glass, he was still buzzing very hard on the 'he's mine' trip. Sebastian found it hot. "Don't make a big deal out of it."

"I'm not making a deal out of anything," Jeff pointed out and then grinned, truly back to being the puppy who spread sunshine and joy, "I'm happy to see you both happy. It fits, and we've actually been crossing our fingers for it for a while already."

"Not as long as we did," Thad and Rob commented at basically the same time and then briefly shared a smirk, Sebastian and Oliver glared at them.

"Regardless of whomever saw this coming first," Nick proved his diplomacy skills and gently smiled into the round, you could see in his eyes that he was still doped up on pain meds, "we're happy for you. And when we're together again, we'll celebrate."

"So you haven't given up hope?" Oliver wanted to know and Nick shook his head, among the six of them who had become victims in that common room, Nick was by far the one with the worst injuries, the one with the longest recovery ahead but it seemed he was also the one with the strongest conviction that everything was gonna be alright. Jeff and him shared a secret smile and look, and Sebastian wondered what Jackson had come to tell them as they had been muted, he was about to find out though.

"My Dad flew to Columbus." Nick explained and Thad nearly dropped his laptop, Sebastian and Oliver untangled themselves in a rush and sat up straight, Rob had frozen. Nick's parents were divorced and Nick lived with his Mum or the Sterlings in LA County during school breaks because his Dad was non stop travelling on business in recent years. What was more important though was that Richard Duval Jr. shared ownership of Dalton Academy with two other men, he had inherited the shares from his own father, the Duvals could trace their line right back to one of the four men who had once founded the school in the day of the fucking pilgrims. If Richard had gone to Dalton, shit was going to go down.

"I think I have goosebumbs," Thad muttered as he set his laptop to the side for the moment, "Old man Duval in Columbus, right along with Seb's Dad? Jesus Christ. Do you know if Montgomery Senior also made an appearance?"

"No idea," Nick had to disappoint, "I could text Wes but he is still bitching about me not telling him everything about what happened. Apparently Blaine has been asking him what happened, and Wes is not sure he wants to tell him even parts of it. I'll try to get something out of him later, play up the invalid card again."

Nick was the king of ruthless adorableness.

"Just text one of us if you hear something."

"We will, and you do the same."

None of them spent a spark of energy on the thought that Dalton might not have a future, the school had gone through worse, it would keep on standing.

\--

The one thing that Sebastian loved the most about New York City was the anonimity, you could do fuckever in the city, no one gave a crap about it. New York encouraged people to be whoever they wanted to be, whatever they wanted to be, because no one said no, no one looked weird at you long enough to get noticed.

When Oliver and him went out in the afternoon after their call to Jeff and Nick, bundled up against the snow and the wind, them holding hands and sharing kisses under snow covered trees in Central Park didn't even get them heads turned. Well, there were two girls who did but Sebastian had a feeling that was more due to two attractive guys kissing than two guys kissing up against a tree. "Yes, my vanity is still strong," he mumbled against Oliver's lips after that suggestion had earned him a raised eyebrow, and he pulled the other boy closer again.

It was fucking cold in New York, and even colder once Jeff sent you pictures of beach life, Nick was so integrated into the Sterlings' life that neither of Jeff's brothers saw a thing in carrying Nick down to the beach for an afternoon out even if he was still on bedrest.

Sebastian hated them for the sunshine and everlasting summer just a little bit.

"There isn't a nuke in this world that could destroy your vanity, Bas," Oliver told him with a chuckle and he smirked when the still new nickname sent shivers down Sebastian's back, Oliver would feel it, he had his hands pushed up the back of Sebastian's jacket and shirt. The nickname change had come along the day before when Oliver had decided that being his boyfriend meant he got to call him something that only belonged to him now where 'Seb' had caught on with more people than just Thad, Rob and him. Sebastian hadn't complained to the idea, only to the first ten proposed names until Oliver had gotten out with 'Bas' and revealed that the other ones had just been teasing.

He had made it his mission to find something for Oliver now, most people at school called him by his last name, within the Warblers the boys called him just simply Oliver. Rob and Thad had called him 'Olli' for probably as long as they could remember and Sebastian had joined in a few months after becoming friends with them but he understood now why Oliver wanted something for himself. It was just hard to find something else to make out of Oliver without turning into something too corny.

Sebastian was in love, he hadn't lost his brain.

"I think that even if something were ever strong enough to threaten my vanity, there is still something stronger to keep it alive," Sebastian told a curiously looking Oliver, his hands coming up around the other boy's neck. Oliver made an inquisitive sound and Sebastian grinned at him. "You, Olli. You'll be there." Oliver smiled, all with soft edges, he pulled his hands out from below Sebastian's clothes again, tugged them back into place and then reached up to frame Sebastian's face.

"You know it means the world to me that you trust me this much," Oliver whispered it, put even more meaning behind it like that, assuring that truly only Sebastian would hear it. "And I promise you I will be there. To knock your ass down to earth, to build you up again." Oliver promised him and then gave him another kissed, Sebastian felt weak in the knees and wrecked his head for a way to stop being so mushy in public. When he found it, he ducked out from below Oliver's hold, dove for the hedge to their right and had a snow ball formed quicker than Oliver's surprised mind could connect the dots.

"Don't you da..." but Oliver's protest was stomped out when the snow hit him square in the chest and Sebastian threw himself behind the hedge, howling with laughter as Oliver's face turned into a glare. "You're gonna regret that, Smythe. You think a cast will stop me?"

"It'll certainly slow you down," Sebastian yelled back over to him, frantically trying pat snow into balls, Oliver might have a handicap but he also had had a way more experienced snow ball fight past. And he was a striker in the Lacrosse team, Sebastian was a mid field player, it wasn't him who had the dead center aim.

And a good two minutes later it became blaringly obvious that Oliver's cast didn't keep him from being the by far better thrower of snow balls as Sebastian laughingly spit out snow and then raised his arms over his head where he had been tackled into the snow covered grass, Oliver straddling his hips. "I give up, you are my superior in all ways, Master Connors."

"You're an idiot," Oliver laughed and leaned down to get another kiss, Sebastian closed his eyes and raised a hand into Oliver's hair to pull him closer, only to yelp in the next moment. He pushed a loudly cackling Oliver off, jumped to his feet and then tried without success to get the snow out of his shirt that Oliver had stuffed down his back.

\--

When they returned home, Thad and Rob had gone out themselves and the only other one home was Alexander who had locked himself away in his office, so they grabbed a hot chocolate from the kitchen and curled up in front of the fireplace to get warmed up again.

"So," Oliver began when their cups were empty and he had Sebastian wrapped up in his arms from behind, leaning back against the side of an armchair, "how is life in a committed relationship treating you so far, Mister Smythe?"

"Pretty great."

And his answer earned him a deep kiss.

\--

"Boys, could you come down for a moment?"

When a father called that up the stairs at eight in the evening, it didn't normally get followed with something good, so the four of them trudged down the stairs a little apprehensive. They found Alexander leaning against the big bookshelf in the living room, the only other one in the room was Donovan sitting in the armchair in the corner by the large window overseeing the garden. Julianna and Lydia had gone out earlier for an art installation in Brooklyn.

"Did something happen?" Oliver wanted to know as Alexander gestured for them to take a seat, and they all squished themselves onto one couch in their nervous states.

"Jonathan called about half an hour ago," Alexander began his explanation and they all tensed upon the mention of Rob's father's name already, "the board, the owners and the authorities have come to a decision. Concerning Dalton's fate, Clarington's fate and the fates of those handful of boys who did his bidding. Where do you want me to start?"

Thad leaned back to let Rob, Oliver and Sebastian exchange long glances and looks, none of them knowing what they wanted to hear first, all of it was important.

"Bandaid off," Rob decided for them after another moment and reached for Thad's hand, Sebastian and Oliver were already clutching onto another, "what happens to Dalton?"

"It won't be closed for good," Alexander chose those words first and they all collectively breathed out a long sigh of relief, Donovan right along, showing that he had suffered along with them in the unknown as well. "But the school will remain closed until after spring break. The board has decided under advice of the authorities to investigate the integrity of the staff, especially the counselors who should have seen something was amiss. New security measures will be installed, they want so called panic buttons in every classroom, common room and corridor to ensure that something like what happened to you won't be able to be repeated because no one could call for help."

That sounded like a good idea actually. Sebastian had never gone to any of the counselors that Dalton offered for its students, he had thought himself above that, but he knew that Nick and Jeff for example hadn't trusted more than half of them because of their creepy vibes.

"Those changes will take some time, so the homeschooling will continue until spring break but after that you will be able to return, and I know you want to." Alexander proved that he had listened to them and heard their wishes and concerns, he was such a great Dad. "I know how much this school means to you, boys, and there was never any doubt in my mind that they wouldn't choose to keep the gates open." Oliver breathed out loudly and then wrapped an arm around Sebastian's shoulders, squeezing and stroking over his arm.

"And what about Clarington? And his goons?" He asked next and met his father's eyes, Alexander's face darkened, fury over what Hunter had done expressed in every inch of him.

"Hunter Clarington will face a trial and under the severity of the circumstances and the seriousness of the injuries he inflicted on Daniel Rust and Nick Duval alone it will be held under adult standards. Lydia can explain you better what accuses are put against him but let me tell you that aggravated assault is only the tip of the iceberg." Alexander clarified and Sebastian felt how something loosened up in his chest that he hadn't known to be clamped up still. "Clarington is facing time behind bars, I cannot imagine that Sebastian's father will accept any other outcome."

Hunter wouldn't be a free man anymore, he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone anymore.

Better news hadn't come in a long time.

"What about his attack dogs?" Donovan spoke up from his corner, leaning forward until he could settle his elbows onto his knees.

"Reform school, ankle monitors, anger management therapy and a lot of observation." Alexander told them and moved to sit down in his armchair, looking less formal now, "they won't pose a problem to anyone involved in this anymore either."

"Do we have to stand witness in Hunter's trial?" Rob wanted to know, looking concerned that the answer might be yes, he had been the one who had knocked Hunter out cold after all.

"No," Alexander could comfort them there right away, too, though and Sebastian breathed out heavily, he still couldn't remember and he wanted it to remain like that now. "You gave your statements to the police. They will not force victims to speak out in front of the judge again unless one of you volunteers and I can't see that happening." If they were already reluctant to even think about the idea, then no, Sebastian couldn't see Jeff, Nick or Daniel have any other opinion. "How do you feel about this now?"

"I'm good," Rob declared and leaned back where Thad wrapped an arm around him, "I wanted Hunter to pay and Dalton to remain open and I got both."

"I'm good, too," Oliver agreed with the sentiment but a small frown remained, "though I won't truly relax about the topic until after Hunter is actually behind bars for at least a couple of years." Oliver emphasized and then looked over to Sebastian who smiled at him, "What do you think, Seb?"

"I think I'm more than ready to leave this behind us and move on. The jerks won't be able to hurt someone again and we have a chance to repair Dalton's reputation." Sebastian decided and smiled into the round, got smiles in return from everyone, "I'm good with that decision, I really am."

"Good, that means I can shovel you off to Acapulco for spring break to have some days of peace in the Hamptons."


	6. Butterflies in Mexican Sunshine

"Give Daniel the room at the end!" Rob hollered after them as Sebastian and Oliver shuffled the wide eyed younger boy and several bags up the stairs, "Rooming alone should at least give him the best view!" Sebastian just so managed to keep himself from yelling a comment right back.

"One week without the damn cast and he's already back to Captain voice," Sebastian grunted instead, silently as to not let the corridor carry his words, Oliver laughed and Daniel smiled.

He was glad that they had been able to convince Mister and Misses Rust to let Daniel come with them to Mexico for the week, it had gotten clearer and clearer in the last three weeks over phonecalls and skype calls that Daniel was lonely, crawling up the walls of his room and terrified of his hometown. He might not have someone around his own age here, but six Seniors were still better than peers who would throw fists because he had dared to be different.

He was a sweet kid, wide-eyed still and polite to a tee, and maybe his hero worship was a little scary because Sebastian was not the kind of guy people should look up to but at the same time his ego certainly found it endearing. Oliver moved them right at the end of the corridor, into one of the bedrooms that went out towards the backyard, the beach and the ocean bay. Daniel whistled quietly, Sebastian grinned as he set one of the larger bags down on the bed before he left Oliver to explain to Daniel where what was and how the AC worked. He had been to the house before with the boys, and Oliver had on the plane still decided that they were gonna take the bedroom overseeing the other side of the house, windows showing the rolling hills of forest that sheltered the property from the main street.

He dropped their bags at the foot of the bed and then walked over to the floor to ceiling windows, it was late afternoon and he was exhausted from the trip here but also looking forward to a week of fun and adventures. No day in Acapulco had been boring the last time and now where all of them were all fit and cleared for action again – Nick having been the last to get the all clear the day before departure – he couldn't wait to just go crazy.

Last spring break in high school.

It was gonna be epic.

He could hear Oliver and Daniel laughing from next door, and Nick's and Rob's muffled bickering from the kitchen. Friends of the Connors had stocked the house for them the day before and they weren't missing anything, and as long as they weren't longing for anything or simply wanted the change, they wouldn't even have to venture into the city for the whole week.

Lost in thoughts over plans and ideas as he was, he didn't hear the laughter next door stop or the footsteps approaching him from behind. Sebastian twitched briefly when two arms got wrapped around his waist and soft lips breathed kisses against the back of his neck, sending shivers down his back. He moved his hands until he was hugging the arms hugging him, lips curling up into a pleased happy smile.

"I see you arrived in vacation mode," Oliver whispered and Sebastian smiled, eyes falling shut when his heart skipped in happiness.

"I was in vacation mode the second the plane took off in New York," Sebastian told him and then turned around in Oliver's arms until he could kiss him, wrapping his arms around Oliver when he got into it, lost in it, because they could do that all day long now if they wanted.

**\--**

"Don't make a wrong move," Jeff greeted them when they stepped down into the wide open almost loft like ground floor a bit later, not even caring to comb down their make out ruffled hair. "Mom 1 and Mom 2 are at it." Jeff continued in a chuckle, he was propped up on one of the couches with a book, his eyes flickering up briefly to glance over into the kitchen area. Thad didn't look away from where he was kneeling on the ground in front of the movie shelf, looking for something, but he snorted and Sebastian knew he would have that little soft smile on his lips that only Rob could cause.

Daniel was perched on top of a chair by the dining table, sorting through whatever music Nick had crammed onto his tablet. None of them were paying any particular attention to Rob and Nick cooking in the kitchen, or as someone might alternatively call it, bickering and yelling at each other while handling pots, only to unite and snap at whoever dared to come too close to their creations.

They were all too used to it.

Sebastian climbed over Jeff's outstretched leg to get to the other couch while Oliver made ninja like steps towards the kitchen counter to nab a bottle of water, managing it only without incident because Nick and Rob were elbows deep in the refrigerator.

"So, what's the great plan for the first night then?" Sebastian wanted to know when Oliver was dropping onto the couch next to him, having preferred to climb over the table instead of Jeff. "Aside from home cooked meals by the mother hens."

"Movie, if you'd rather christen the sheets, give us a hint early enough so we can adjust the popcorn amount," Thad deadpanned and glanced over to them with a grin, Sebastian scowled back at him but he felt how Oliver wrapped an arm around his shoulders, probably smirking.

"Nah, we'll wait until the second night. Give you at least the impression for a while that this is a group trip," Oliver joked and Sebastian elbowed him, it was bad enough that his comments had already managed to have these guys believe they were going at it like rabbits when in truth they hadn't fully had sex yet.

Sebastian had never had the desire before to wait for the right time, not until now, and cooped up in a house with Rob and Thad at times, and then Lydia coming and going at random times, and of course Oliver's parents... it had just never gotten to be that right time. They had more privacy here now, Rob and Thad as well as Jeff and Nick were literally on the other side of the house, in a different part of the first floor that was entirely cut off from theirs, and Danny respected privacy a lot more than their other friends.

"Are you searching for your creepy black and white horror movies?" Sebastian turned the conversation away from his sex life, "because I'm quite sure Olli and Rob buried them in the backyard last year." Thad glared at him and pulled another movie from the shelf to set upon the little stack he had already collected. Thad's despicable taste in movies was something that still gave Sebastian the heebie-jeebies and he would like to keep Danny from having to make the same experience.

"We're also not going for that artsy shit that Jeff is married to," Oliver mentioned and cashed in a harsh puppy glare from Jeff. Their married since the cradle couple was the weirdest, as close and twinsy like as they could often be, they became two entirely separate entities where it concerned movies. Jeff liked artsy stuff and independent short films and all yearly nominees of the Oscar's best foreign feature film. Nick on the other hand went weak in the knees for superhero blockbusters and comic adaptions with hot guys but easy stories.

"We are also not having another episode of the Bourne vs Bond catasstrophee," Jeff argued and pinned Sebastian and Oliver down with an unimpressed stare. Maybe the one thing they had never gotten on the same page, Sebastian liked the elegance and intelligence of James Bond, Oliver liked the badassery and roughness of Jason Bourne. "Hey, Thad, did Rob and you bring down the latest Mission Impossible movie the last time you were down here?" Thad groaned but began to search for it, "and the one who gets to decide is Danny anyway, he doesn't have any obligations towards boyfriends."

Over by the table, Danny snapped his head up and stared over to them with wide eyes, hand frozen on Nick's tablet.

"Don't drag the kid into your disagreements," Nick called over from the kitchen before Danny could have even brought up the nerves for a single word. They were all protective over him now, two years younger as he was and without peers in his own year, but no one did mother hen like Nick did really. He just liked looking after people too much. "We can bother with movie choices later, after we've eaten and now either get out or keep your traps shut so we can work."

Everyone but Danny left for the garden and the pool deck, Jeff simply exchanged couch for a deck chair and dove back into his book. Thad temporarily abandoned his movie collecting in order to stroll down the garden steps to probably check on the tennis court because only Rob and him didn't know the definition of vacation and relaxing, they still needed their daily dose of morning runs and sportive activities. The only thing Sebastian would indulge in concerning sport in this week down here would be swimming, and sex. There had been a long argument last year over whether or not it counted as sport, but he doubted they would do that again, Nick and Jeff weren't that open to sharing talk like that and Danny would only be mortified.

Sebastian and Oliver walked down the other staircase to get the little hidden alcove with the bench that overlooked the private beach, only three houses shared it and they knew this time around that the other beach homes weren't visited this week. They were truly alone here. They sat down on the bench and propped their feet up on the little wooden fence that surrounded the backside of the property. They enjoyed the evening sunshine for a moment, shoulder to shoulder and both of them already chilled out.

"Do you think about what happens at the end of this week at all?" Oliver asked him a while later and Sebastian looked over to him.

"You mean going back to Westerville?" He inquired and Oliver nodded without taking his eyes off of the setting sun, "sure, I do. It's gonna be weird, we've been gone for weeks at this point. They've really combed through the teachers and the staff, but it's still our school. I think it's gonna be nice to come back." He pointed out and watched Oliver's face closely. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just... it popped into my head just now that we're gonna step back into that room and I don't know how I am feeling about that," Oliver admitted and shifted until he could look at Sebastian without having to twist his neck so much, he always easily twinched a nerve right there. "First of all because of what I might be remembering, what might flash back in graphic detail, but also because of Nick and Jeff and Danny. Rob's visibly okay since they put bars between Hunter and the rest of the world but Nick, Jeff and Danny are not over anything by a long shot. And you, what if you suddenly remember?"

"If it happens, we'll deal with it. I'm not scared, Olli." Sebastian told him and reached for his hand, squeezing a couple of times until Oliver sighed and leaned against him. "If we get scared now, he'll still win, Olli, and we can't let that happen. He's out of our lives finally, so don't let even a part of him back in. We got this, together."

"GUYS! If you don't want to starve, get moving!"

"Yeah, we're gonna be fine." Oliver agreed with him and then for a moment he looked like he wanted to say something else still but he chose not to, instead he moved to kiss Sebastian and then jumped to his feet so he could pull Sebastian to his own.

**\--**

On the second night of their getaway Oliver slipped into the shower Sebastian was taking after a long day on the beach and in the pool. Thad, Rob and Danny had gone into town to catch a movie because they were the only ones who actually spoke Spanish well enough to enjoy a movie in it, and Nick and Jeff had headed out after lunch already for a long hike, they weren't expecting them back until later tonight.

So they had the house to themselves.

They had neither been planning for it, nor had they been explicitly hoping for one, it just happened.

And their romantic evening started off with Sebastian shrieking like a little girl when someone touched his shoulder under the shower. He had turned on the radio and maybe drifted off a little while the water flushed away the sand and salt.

"You ass!" He growled at a loudly laughing Oliver a moment later after whirling around, him with a hand pressed to his heart and Oliver slumped back against the wall, both hands pressed to his stomach. "You can't just sneak up on me while I'm in the shower."

"We're alone," Oliver pointed out to him through his laughter and his eyes were shining with mischief and happiness, "oh my god, I can't believe you screamed like that."

Sebastian pouted and ducked back under the water, with the recycle system that Rob's water had had installed here some years ago no one had to feel guilty over overusing the showers. Oliver's face turned into fondness and he stepped close enough that they were chest to chest.

"Sorry, I didn't want to scare you, just surprise you." Oliver told him quietly and Sebastian, with his heart finally calming down again, nodded and leaned in to kiss him.

And that kiss quickly turned into a direction that Sebastian was very much supporting, there was no one here who would come knocking when the shower ran too long, no one who would have a question over something. So when Oliver gently pushed him back up against the tiles, Sebastian welcomed it and leaned his head back against it, too, revealing his throat to a happily accepting Oliver. When Oliver nudged a leg between his, Sebastian groaned and swept one hand up through the falling water to push Oliver's head closer to his neck still.

“Please,” he panted, already breathless, powerless against soft hands stroking so very sinfully over every inch of him that Oliver could reach, warm water heating up the paths he left even more. “Olli, please.” He wasn't even sure what he was begging for but when Oliver let a little teeth follow the bruises he sucked into Sebastian's neck, he had his answer. Combined with the thigh Oliver brushed right up against where Sebastian's cock had grown so hard already, Sebastian felt his knees grow weak.

Oliver drew back from his neck with a chuckle and caught his sliding down form with a strong arm pushed around his back, taking a minute to admire his handiwork with a content smile. If he wasn't so damn turned on by it, Oliver's territory issues might have become a bit annoying by now. Sebastian watched him, one hand on the back of Oliver's head, the other clutching at a strong shoulder where muscles were shifting right under his fingertips as Oliver pulled him closer still.

“Should we really finish this shower now or take it later?” Sebastian wanted to know when he had to blink against the waterfall, Oliver grinned and with a quick movement of his wrist the water was turned off. “Later, I fully agree,” Sebastian added with a smirk and then crashed his lips against Oliver's, grinding against him as best as he could as slippery as they were. When it came to actually getting out of the shower, they kept their hands to themselves though, no one wanted this big show to end in an ER stint and broken bones. They dried themselves just enough to not soak the mattress and then they were stumbling into the bedroom, kissing and grasping at each other with wanting needy hands.

Sebastian didn't hit the bed hard when Oliver pushed him but that was less grounded on his force and more on the ridiculous softness of the foam memory mattress that caught his fall like clouds would have. If it weren't for the fancy mattress, Sebastian would have felt it because Oliver had wanted him to, and as he laid on his back, gasping from the thrill of it still, he was left staring up at Oliver.

“Where did that come from?” He wanted to know with panting breaths while Oliver licked his lips and kept that burning stare of want and possessive need trained right on Sebastian.

“Somewhere where there is more still,” Oliver told him and his voice had dropped somewhere heavy where it sent Sebastian's senses into complete overdrive. Oliver saw it all as always and he smirked when he oh so sensually slowly got up on the bed with him, crawling over him until he could straddle Sebastian's thighs.

Sebastian settled his hands on Oliver's thighs, fingertips digging slightly into skin, especially when Oliver began to trace patterns over his chest. Moving along his collarbones, tracing along his abs, tracing around his nipples, and all so goddamn soft, such a hard contrast to the look in Oliver's darkened eyes. Sebastian moved his hands over Oliver's waist and then to his back, pushing until Oliver grinned and moved his hands to the pillows to lean down. Their lips met in a kiss that started off sweet and slow but rather quickly intensified into something more heated, they were both too riled up to spent hours getting lost by touches alone again.

Oliver slid down on him, wrapping an arm around Sebastian's neck to pull him closer as he slotted a leg between his, grounding his thigh down against where Sebastian's was hard. Sebastian shifted his arms to wrap around Oliver's neck, gaspingly breaking their kiss to stupidly grin up at Oliver. “I want you so much right now.”

“I'm right here, Bas.” Oliver promised and his lips kissed a path down to his neck, his collarbone, his shoulder and Sebastian's eyes fell shut while he just fell apart like butter to a warmed up knife under Oliver's hands. “Look at you, all relaxed and happy.”

“How could I not, you're always taking good care of me,” Sebastian whispered, felt Oliver's smile against his skin as his boyfriend slid lower to kiss down his chest. Sebastian's arms slipped away from Oliver's neck, dropping down onto the mattress when that got to be more comfortable.

“I like taking care of you,” Oliver told him and looked up at him briefly to give him that sweet smile, “I like seeing you happy.”

“You also like to see me blissed out slap-happy, so how about you get to that,” Sebastian mentioned and Oliver laughed, nuzzling against his stomach for a moment before he pulled himself up again.

“Pushy bottom,” he chuckled and Sebastian opened his lips to protest but the words got stuck in his throat when Oliver kissed him again and at the same time trailed a hand down to Sebastian's cock, fingers gently stroking along it. Sebastian nearly bit down on his lip and gasped out a few breaths, hips bucking up quite involuntarily.

This starting part was truly Sebastian's favourite part of sex, not the whole ecstacy of orgasms, not the coming down afterwards, not the mad erratic dash before falling off the edge. It was this phase where touches slowly turned more daring that just swept his mind and heart away, touches that slowly turned into a slick and slide of skin and skin, that was his thing, and it didn't matter if he was on top or not. He didn't have preferences, no matter what people were assuming about his sex life, bottoming only needed a lot of trust and Sebastian#s conquest did not always come with that. Oliver he could trust, blind and fully, with his life, with his heart and body and soul, no question whatsoever.

“Get your head back to me, darling,” Oliver softly whispering in his ear drew Sebastian back into the game and he heard himself slightly panting. Oliver's hand had gotten wrapped around his cock and he was stroking slowly, teasing. “There you are, Bas. I'm not going further until you don't space out on me.”

“Just thinking about how much I love giving myself to you,” Sebastian admitted and Oliver drew back so they could look at each other, and Oliver's eyes were sparkling, as cheesy as it might sound. They hadn't used the l-word with each other yet, and Sebastian knew that Oliver would come out with it first, he was more open with his emotions, it was just how his family worked, how he had been raised and learned.

So confessing this was kind of a big deal already.

Oliver smiled down at him and then drew him back into a kiss that turned away from sensual after a moment, got deepened and heated. When Oliver let go of his cock to prop himself up over him with both hands, Sebastian instead pulled him closer again, one hand splayed out over the small of Oliver's back, grinding their hips together. Oliver got with the game and then it got to that perfect slick and slide and Sebastian lost himself in it and the kisses Oliver pressed against his lips, his cheeks, his temples and his jaws.

They didn't get rushed, nothing of those fired up make out sessions or mindblowing get down on each other sessions, they had time now. They had total privacy tonight, they could draw it out. And it turned him on way more when things got drawn out, when he could feel Oliver hot and heavy against himself, when his fingers could rediscover his boyfriend's body all over again, every dip and every curve.

A big turn off for Sebastian was the ultimate moment of people awkwardly fishing for the lube and then starting the stupid inquisition of “are you sure” and “you ready” on an never-ending repeat because they couldn't get their shit together. Oliver had his shit together and he knew what Sebastian wanted and needed even more, and most of all he knew what he wanted himself and he was never too shy to just take it.

Knowing fully well that he had Sebastian's enthusiastic consent.

Oliver also had magic because he could produce the lube out of basically thin air, he never fumbled for anything, and this time he also was dropping a condom onto the mattress while Sebastian just stupidly blinked at him post some heated kiss that sucked the ability to form words right out of Sebastian's brain. His boyfriend, loving bastard that he could be, also brought him right back to that blissed out state of floating when Oliver sucked him down while opening him up with careful but determined fingers.

When he was three fingers deep in Sebastian, he pulled off Sebastian's cock and kissed up his stomach and chest again, Cheshire smirk bright and thick on his face. Sebastian let his eyes fall shut because the sensations were already overwhelming, he wanted to push back onto Oliver's fingers, he wanted to kiss him, he didn't want Oliver to stop kissing him, he also wanted Oliver to get a fucking move on.

“Get going,” he complained softly when Oliver seemed to prefer focusing on his new obsession with kissing Sebastian's collarbone like his life depended on it.

“I'm trying to seduce you here, you stonehead,” Oliver grunted and pulled up enough to give Sebastian a fake glare, lips smiling too much to portray any kind of anger.

“I'm seduced, call it an overwhelming success, can we now please proceed,” Sebastian huffed and grinned when Oliver rolled his eyes but followed his wish as he pulled his fingers out. He wiped them off on the bedsheet and then settled himself fully over Sebastian again, Sebastian wrapped his arms around him, pulled him close, wanted to feel all of him.

And all of him he got.

Oliver was careful, arms straining on either side of Sebastian's head where he had propped himself up on his elbows, trying to hold back as he slowly slid into Sebastian. Sebastian in turn stroked over his back, peppered the side of Oliver's face with soft kisses, he didn't feel any discomfort but he knew very well that the first moment of 'tight, hot, tight' was like seeing stars. He himself felt good, so good, full and heavy and warm, finally having Oliver as close as they could get, it had been so worth it to wait for this step in their relationship.

“Move,” he whispered, voice pleading, one hand slipping down to push against Oliver's ass, the other moving up to tangle in Oliver's hair. Oliver chuckled but complied, turning his head so they could kiss again. They started out slow, just a push and grind, losing themselves in kisses until they needed to break away for air, chests heaving with panted breaths. Bodies heated up and began to sweat, skin glistening as they forgot the world around them.

“Faster, come on, please.”

“Bas,” Oliver gasped and snapped his hips forward quicker, Sebastian blew out a breath and held on stronger, pulling Oliver's face against the side of his neck. The gesture was unmistakable and he felt Oliver grin before teeth latched onto his skin, sucking a mark against his skin that their friends would roll their eyes over again tomorrow. They liked showing off their claim way too much probably. Oliver drew back with a content little sigh and Sebastian smiled up at him, grinding up against Oliver's hips, Oliver leaned in to kiss him, once, twice, and then nuzzled their noses together.

It was an unspoken command almost then and their bodies melted together even more, moving in near perfect rhythm, skin slapping against skin, breaths gasping from kiss-bruised lips, and they couldn't look away from each other. Drinking in the other one's need and lust and drive. Sebastian wouldn't even need that helping hand, the friction against his cock was good, so good and as Oliver's next thrust hit his prostrate just right, he moaned and threw his head back, inviting Oliver right back to have at it at his neck.

Sebastian was going to look like a chew toy tomorrow and he was going to love every second of it.

He came in that toe-curling intensity that stole all capability of thinking right out of his mind for a few good seconds, everything just turning to white noise and warmth. When he got back to his head and body, he crashed his lips right back against Oliver's, tightened his arms around him for good now. When the snap of Oliver's hips got erratic, their kiss broke and Oliver dropped his face against Sebastian's shoulder, panting hard now. Sweat was pearling down their bodies, Sebastian could feel a drop of it run down the side of his face as Oliver tensed and then came with a breathy gasp of “Bas” right against Sebastian's neck. Sebastian grinned, pleased, happy, content and entirely comfortable, he stroked hands over Oliver's back, could but not count the pounding beats of their hearts almost on top of each other.

“Wow,” Sebastian panted as Oliver rolled off of him and flopped face first into the pillow next to him, “just wow.” Oliver snorted out a laugh and then couldn't hold back anymore, breaking out into ringing laughter while he rolled onto his side and wrapped an arm around Sebastian's middle. “I'm not willing to boost your ego even further but damn, Olli.” The hand on his waist squeezed but Oliver was panting and laughing too much to get words out.

Sebastian grinned and despite the fact that he was sweaty and sticky and disgusting he rolled onto his side as well and pushed himself close to the warm body next to his. He curled in against Oliver and tugged his head under the other's chin, smiled against slowly drying skin when Oliver wrapped him into his arms, laughs slowing down into soft snickering.

“It was worth it to wait,” Oliver said when he was able to again and his voice was _wrecked_, Sebastian smirked against Oliver's chest but also agreed with a hum, it had definitely been worth it to wait. “And now don't you dare move until I feel my legs again.”

“As you wish,” Sebastian sighed in pleased amusement and closed his eyes, let himself drift off a little against Oliver's soft warm skin, held protectively by his boyfriend's arms as the sun sunk behind the windows.

**\--**

"Oh, come on, stop bragging," Sebastian called over to Rob and Jeff who collapsed into the sand, laughing loud enough to even drown out the small waves crashing to shore. "If you keep going, they'll keep you here to sell to the circus," he pointed out, they had been showing off their handstands and hand-walking for half an hour now, he was beginning to worry the overflow of blood to their heads might have damaged something. He himself was stretched out on his stomach on his towel, still drying from his latest bout in the water.

"Hey, circus means they'll have a career to look forward to," Oliver chuckled and then dodged the waterball that Thad looped in his direction. Sebastian rolled his eyes and then closed them to smile when Oliver went back to rubbing down his back so he could cover him with sunscreen again. Rob and Thad had their part South-American DNA to thank that they only tanned and didn't burn, Nick was dark haired and had California childhood to thank for the same. Danny and Jeff only touched the beach in shirts, a Seattle kid and a boy whose family had only moved from Denver to LA two years ago, they burned even faster than Oliver and Sebastian did.

"Speaking of careers," Thad picked up the conversation again after a moment, Rob and Jeff had grabbed the wayward ball to throw around, Danny and Nick still didn't move from where they had crashed after coming out of the ocean. "How is the collective opinion over going back to Ohio on Sunday?" His answer was a collective groan and Thad laughed, "you boys knew it was coming."

"Listen," Oliver began and his fingers dug so amazingly into Sebastian's shoulders that he had to bite back a moan, "I am excited to go back to Dalton, to go back to normal days. But am I excited to go back to Ohio? Hell no. Once more being forced to keep my relationship from the narrowminded stupid homophobia of idiots."

There was a moment of frozen silence while that sank in and while they reminded themselves with a wince and a grimace how Oliver's first relationship had fallen apart because of exactly that.

"Look on the bright side, it's final now," Jeff piped up as the first one again, "You're returning to Dalton and Ohio for the last time. Come summer, it's freedom from high school and freedom from Mid-Western idiocrasy. And I know for a fact that all of your college choices are very liberal places." Jeff added and Oliver stuck his tongue out at him, "don't worry, Olli, you'll be soon able to parade your boy-toy around without any dark looks."

"I'm not his..."

"Shush," Oliver patted the back of Sebastian's head while interrupting him, Sebastian humpfed and went boneless again under Oliver's hands who didn't stop while talking. "But honestly, I'm actually happy to go back. I fucking missed the Academy these last weeks. We got some things to rectify, and lots of things to enjoy still. Our Senior year sucked so far, we gotta up the epicness still."

"Sounds like a challenge," Rob noted and Sebastian heard the grin in his voice, "but you're right, I am quite happy over going back as well."

"I'm just happy to get away from my Mom until the summer," Danny whined and finally showed some life as he rolled onto his back, floppy hair all over the place.

"Like we're gonna let you suffer a summer in Seattle," Oliver pointed out and Sebastian saw how Danny's too sweet face turned even more into sugar as he grinned in gratefulness. "Isn't that right, boy toy?" Oliver hummed and patted Sebastian's cheeks, cashing in a growl.

"Run," Sebastian snarled through the echoing laughter of their friends, "oh, run, Olli." And he threw Oliver off and then turned around, immediately lunging for his quickly retreeting if loudly cackling boyfriend. "Run for fucking Atlantis! I am NOT your boy toy!"

He caught up to Oliver at the water's edge and then tackled him right into the next wave, sending them both under for a good long moment. When they spluttered back up for air, kneeling in the once more shallow water, Oliver threw himself at Sebastian with a shit eating grin, wrestling him right into a kiss.

"Were we ever that cute?" They heard from the beach and then a thud when Thad must have thrown something at Rob, but they ignored it to keep kissing. Nothing would change this bliss, not Ohio, not Dalton, not high school. Sebastian was just so damn happy.

**\--**

The last evening found Sebastian and Oliver out on the beach as the sun was already close to dipping into the ocean. Holding hands and walking down the beach on the water's edge. Thad and Rob had already retired to their room when they had set out and Nick and Jeff had cuddled on one of the couches in front of the TV, Danny passed out on the other one.

It was beautiful out here, especially so late in the day when the sun no longer threatened to burn your skin off. The sky was orange, gold and red, and all was reflected in the water of the ocean, which was peaceful in itself, no big waves. There was barely any wind in their bay, just a slight breeze that was enough to let the palm trees swish a little. Sebastian probably liked this time out here the most when it was so peaceful that you wished you could stay forever and never return to the real world.

He stopped and turned to watch the sunset's last moments, Oliver looked at him for a moment to find out why he had suddenly stopped and then smiled as he stepped behind him. Oliver wrapped his arms around him, set his chin upon Sebastian's shoulder.

"You really like watching the sunsets," Oliver observed quietly and Sebastian nodded, he did, he had somehow always liked sunsets. It had something magical, something that had always managed to draw him away from even the shittiest thoughts in his head.

"It's not too cheesy, is it?" He wanted to know from Oliver anyway but Oliver first kissed the side of his neck and then tightened his arms around him before he was even speaking.

"No, it's not. I think there isn't a human in the world who won't admit that sunsets are something special," Oliver told him and Sebastian leaned back against him. "And I like it even more when you get all soft on me and show me your big heart." And enough was enough so Sebastian snorted and turned around in Oliver's arms so he could kiss him to shut him up before he could sprout any more romantic crap.

They let themselves go a little with the kiss, there was no one around who could be bothered and though they would never have sex in sand, you could fool around a little. So it was no wonder that they found themselves down in the sand soon enough, Oliver on top of Sebastian with a hand in Sebastian's hair. They got into it until Sebastian felt sand slipping down his collar and he grimaced himself right out of the kiss, Oliver chuckled and peppered the side of his face with kisses. Sebastian twitched away from the tickling sensation but only prompted Oliver to fully straddle and push him down into the sand, hands slowly tracing down his chest.

"No," Sebastian protested but Oliver's fingers slipped under his shirt and got to town, causing Sebastian to shriek with laughter and trashing to get away, "you're so meeeean." Oliver was laughing and and let off of him after another minute, then just looking down at a panting Sebastian who tried to catch his breath while smiling like an idiot up at the boy he was so crazy for.

"Bas?"

"Hm?"

"I love you." Oliver said and Sebastian's just returned breath got stuck in his lungs, he stared at Oliver's warm eyes just overflowing with love. Love for him. "And you don't have to say anything yet or anytime soon, I just need you to know that I'm not going anywhere." Oliver continued before Sebastian could even think about panicking over saying it back because he wasn't there yet, he felt it but he couldn't say it just yet. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Olli, you know how I..."

"I know," Oliver cut him off and kissed him briefly, his hands still gently stroking over Sebastian's arms, "and this isn't a competition over getting equal. I love you, Sebastian, and I just want you to know that so you'll stop thinking that I'm gonna run." And of course Oliver had caught onto that fleeting thought that Sebastian kept on having sometimes, that one day Sebastian was gonna wake up and Oliver had decided that he wasn't worth it anymore. "I'm not running, Bas."

A few minutes later they traumatized Danny, Nick and Jeff only a little when they stumbled past them to get up to their room faster than humanly possible.


	7. More than just an Academy

"And the kings are back in town!"

"Don't make me shove you into the fountain before I even have both feet out of the car!"

Sebastian rolled his eyes over Rob's and Oliver's antics and then slowly got out of the backseat of Rob's fancy German car, he ignored the squabbling cousins and walked to the back to pop the trunk. Roadtrips, even the really short ones from the airport with Rob and Oliver after not enough sleep were just a recipe for homicide. He began to unload their bags and actually sincerely hoped that Rob and Oliver wouldn't throw each other into the damn fountain on their first day back. Thankfully fate was on his side still and both his friends quickly returned to his sides and they got the trunk unloaded in no time.

Meaning they only had to carry it all up to the dorms now.

Right. Fun times.

They all turned to face the Academy, nothing had changed visibly of course, maybe in the Common Room, there had been destroyed furniture and windows after all but right here their school still looked completely the same. And that felt good. The parking lot was already filled pretty well because Rob had insisted on not being the nerdy ones who turned up first, and hence they had wasted a whole hour in the freaking airport Starbucks.

Sebastian was privately convinced that made them the bigger losers.

"I'm starving, let's get going," Rob announced and grabbed as many bags as he could carry, he overplayed quite beautifully that he was in fact nervous as well. Oliver sent Sebastian a look and a smile and then they loaded themselves up as well to follow their smaller friend. Some boys greeted them in the entrance hall but all of them were too deep in conversation or hurrying to be the first at the dinner hall to bother for much more than a short hello. It was a little astonishing that no one really stared, but then again they had had a certain reputation before this whole disaster happened, he would have to ask Nick, Jeff and Danny later how their experience had gone.

"Can we just drop everything off and get something to eat first?" Rob wanted to know when they were crossing through the side building that housed the library, the infirmary and the counselors offices and connected the dorms to the rest of the academy.

"You just want to get dinner now because Thad has an evening class and won't be available to skype for another hour," Sebastian pointed out the obvious and Rob sent him a scowl before hip-checking another door open. "By the way, Olli, can I crash with you tonight? I don't wanna listen to the whining half the night because they'll be apart for the next couple of months now for the last time."

"Oh, so I can't have sex but you do?" Rob bit out and Oliver and Sebastian both shushed him, not hiding anything didn't mean they wanted their relationship outed to Dalton by some side comment over their sex life. "It's not my fault my boyfriend is a college boy instead of some fellow boring high school idiot."

"Who are you calling boring here?" Oliver and Sebastian chorused in perfectly accidental sync and Rob grimaced at him in total disgust for a long moment before he pushed open the last door to get into the second floor staircase of the dorm.

"You two suck so hard right now."

Dark wood panneled walls greeted them just as much as the deep blue carpet on the floor did, and they all breathed in deeply, there was something about the dorms that just smelled like home. They heaved their bags up the last flight of stairs and then ran straight into Nick and Jeff on the third floor east corridor. After some small talk, Nick and Jeff promised to get them one of the good tables in the dinner hall and then skipped off, there was no sign of Danny yet according to them. Oliver walked off to the corner room he had at the end of the corridor, Sebastian and Rob simply turned right to get to the dorm room they shared right across from Nick and Jeff.

Rob had just enough patience to let Sebastian change into a fresh shirt before he was dragging him out into the corridor again, loudly calling for Oliver to get his butt moving and not respecting the privacy of others for the hundreth time. To his luck their corridor prefect was Nick and hence not around. Oliver sighed when he left his room but smiled when Sebastian grabbed his hand and pulled him along, Rob groaned and hurried ahead of them.

In the dinner hall heads turned when they stepped inside and now people certainly stared at them, more specifically at the hands Sebastian and Oliver still kept interwined. Rob only huffed, entirely unimpressed and made his way to the food, loading his tray in record time, maybe he was indeed also starving.

"It's like none of them have ever seen two hot dudes holding hands," Oliver mumbled when he dragged Sebastian over to the food as well and hence away from the surprised stares. Over by the far side windows, Nick and Jeff were in conversation with Danny who must have turned up just now, his bags were stacked up next to his chair.

"I think it's more that they thought they'd never see me holding someone's hand," Sebastian chuckled as they let go of each other to take trays of their own, Rob was already switched to a brighter mood as he charmed the kitchen ladies over the counter.

They got their food and joined the other three at the table, and quick enough it was almost like any other first day back after spring break. They made plans for the morning, whined about the double period of history as the first two periods. They didn't think about triggers or flashbacks or bad feelings, it was all a thing that could happen but if it did they knew they had each other. None of them was alone, none of them had to deal with it alone.

They could really move on now and go back to their normal lives.

**\--**

"Alright, boys," Nick announced as he stepped into the Common Room full of what remained of the Warblers, "we got some things to go over and I want to get back to business as fast as possible." Nick had been chosen as the temporary spokesperson until they had an actual traditional council again because he was the only prefect on the Warblers. And people were admittedly just as scared of Nick as they were of Sebastian, Rob or Oliver. "First order of business is to reestablish a council. The new rules state that only Seniors and only students who have been at Dalton for at least a year are eligible. Furthermore, the Head of Council cannot inhabit any other position of power."

The headmaster had been very set on no longer making it possible for any student to go on too much of a power trip.

"Of the Seniors that means it rules out me, Jeff, Rob, Oliver and Trent." Nick went on and he had actual lists made, Sebastian glanced over to Rob and Oliver who were sitting on the couch across from Jeff, Danny and him because they had come in late after being held up by the Spanish teacher. "Council members are not forced under that rule, it's just the Head, so I open the floor for suggestions. I got my own but I wanna hear yours first." Everyone kind of threw glances around the room for a good minute until Danny quietly spoke up as the first one.

"I suggest Sebastian," he surprised the hell out of Sebastian who actually spun around next to him and blinked down at the younger boy. "He may have played some stupid pranks last year but he stood up to Hunter. Rob, Oliver and him could have turned their backs but they didn't, they staid for us. They endured for us. And I think we should show them some gratitude." Rob was staring at Danny, speechless for once, Sebastian could tell that even out of the corner of his eyes. Oliver was staring at him though and Sebastian himself couldn't look away from the sincerity in Danny's eyes.

"I was gonna propose Sebastian, too," another sophomore spoke up and Sebastian was getting a little positively attacked here, and then some other guys nodded, too.

"I think it's a good idea," Trent noted from his corner, he had approached them on the first day back already to ask about rejoining the Warblers, Nick had welcomed him with open arms. "We don't have any competitions anymore to look forward to but I think Sebastian shouldn't have trouble to get us motivated for something." It meant a lot to hear this from him, so much in fact that Sebastian felt his chest grow warm, Trent had been one of his biggest oppositions in the beginning.

"Any other suggestions?" Nick wanted to know from where he was leaning against the council table, fingers of his right hand playing with the gavel that someone had dug out from wherever it had vanished to upon Hunter's arrival. No one spoke up and no one even looked unhappy. "Alright, then..." Nick moved to declare the suggestion accepted and wanted to vote but Oliver raised his hand. "What?"

"What's yours? You said you had one, so what is it?"

"Sebastian." Nick answered so matter of fact that Sebastian spun in the other direction to stare at another person now. "If you disregard the pranks from last year, he did pose a good leader. He whipped us into shape, we sounded great. And he's turned over a new leaf because he wanted to, not because anyone pressured him. Can't imagine someone better to be honest. Especially if Rob and Oliver make up the rest of the council and level him out."

"What?" Rob immediately called out and looked from Nick to Jeff and then to Trent, "Woah, what's going on here? Why do I get a feeling that this is something you planned?"

"I didn't plan anything and I certainly didn't plant any ideas into anyone's heads." Nick made his emphasis on the second part of that sentence, "if more people think like Jeff and me, then only the better. Unless you three put yourselves up against it." Rob and Oliver both turned to look at Sebastian who wasn't quite sure what to think at the moment. "I would say sleep a night on it but I'd rather get this done now. The headmaster gave us quite a list of occasions to perform to redeem ourselves in the eyes of Westerville and I would really get to song choices and practicing as soon as possible. And I would also love to get this out of my hands as soon as possible because I have a student council to lead into graduation and prom preparations. So, boys?"

"I'm game," Rob said and leaned back on the couch again, watching the silent conversation that Sebastian and Oliver started just then. It was the ultimate redemption, wasn't it? To go back to that position where he had fucked so much up? He could do a better job the second time around and show the people that the Warblers were awesome even without steroids, and maybe it wasn't a Nationals stage but if they started small here a future generation could built on that. Oliver nodded at him and Sebastian had his decision made as well.

"We're in," he said for Oliver and himself and looked over to Nick again, "but I insist on a vote." He made clear and Nick waved his hand for the group to go ahead.

"All in favor of Sebastian as new Head Warbler?"

All hands went up.

"All in favor of appointing Rob and Oliver to the Council?"

All hands went up.

"Have at it then, boys." Nick announced and then walked back over to where Jeff was sitting on an armchair, perching himself on the side of it. Sebastian exchanged a look with Oliver and Rob and then got up to set himself onto the council table, Rob and Oliver followed but actually sat down on chairs behind it. Picking up Nick's lists, Sebastian threw a look onto them before he settled his eyes on the now expectant looking boys.

"Alright, let's see what we can do."

This felt good.

**\--**

Going on a nice date in Columbus, let alone Westerville was already a struggle in itself, but add to it the people going on that date being in a homosexual relationship and you could update struggle to impossibility. At least if you wanted to avoid stares and comments. Sebastian and Oliver strategized for a while before they chose a Friday early evening in an Italian place that reviews wise seemed to be at least half accepting of out of norm people.

When they arrived they were ushered to their table without anyone looking twice and they actually relaxed quickly after that, never all the way but definitely enough to enjoy an evening away from the ever ongoing craziness and noise of Dalton's dorms. Their friends were busy in their own ways, Nick and Jeff had driven across town to catch a concert and Rob had much to Danny's reluctant joy thrown himself into the mission to get the shy boy a girlfriend.

And it was also Rob who somehow became the topic of conversation as they were waiting for their orders. "He's gonna throw a hissy fit when he hears that we finalized everything without even talking to him once." Sebastian pointed out and placed with the fingers of Oliver's left hand on his thigh but Oliver shook his head.

"We've always known that Rob was gonna follow Thad to Columbia and we never talked about it anyway, and Rob doesn't expect to be asked." Oliver pointed out and he didn't show any guilt over the fact that they had both chosen Yale and New Haven over Columbia and New York. "Is it gonna be weird to be parted from my cousin for the first time ever in some institution of education? Sure, but we're not kids anymore. We'll be fine, and we both got awesome boyfriends to dry the tears."

Sebastian squeezed Oliver's hand and then smiled, "he's gonna let us suffer for a couple of days anyway, play all affronted and betrayed, because he gets a kick out it."

"He gets a kick of playing the wounded damsel because Thad gets a rise out of that," Oliver noted with a completely straight face and then snorted out a laugh when he caught sight of Sebastian's grimace. "Everybody has something. You like it when I throw you down on beds, Thad likes it when Rob looks like in need of comfort."

"And what do you like? What's your thing then?" Sebastian wanted to know quietly and Oliver smirked, leaning closer so he could whisper.

"My thing is you going all pliant and soft and letting me take control," Oliver told him and Sebastian crossed his legs over another, shifting and hoping he wasn't blushing as hard as he feared he might, Oliver snickered and stroked their joined hands over Sebastian's thigh. "But seriously, he won't throw a fit. He knew where we applied to, he knew his own choices, so he knew right away that there was a likely chance we wouldn't end up at the same place. And it's not like we're gonna lose touch, first of all he is family, we'll still see way too much of him."

Being included in the 'we' made Sebastian's heart beat harder for a long moment, made him all fussy inside.

"And Nick and Jeff are going to Harvard, and we're not expecting to never hear from them again." Oliver went on with his argument, "And Danny is obviously caged for two more years in Ohio and we're all gonna make damn sure to give him support. Are you getting nervous already?"

"Over moving with you to New Haven? Hell no," Sebastian disagreed and spotted their barista angling her way back towards them with plates, "it's just gonna be weird, I guess, to not have this support system around. We can look after each other but who's gonna look after us when we're both hit by something?"

"New Haven and New York are a little over two hours apart by car and less so by train. Our family can be there if we just call," Oliver reminded him and Sebastian smiled at him, excited and happy, just happy. They got their food and then ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Oliver picked up the conversation again. "Have you mentioned to your Dad at all yet that you chose Yale? I mean I could ask my Mum to handle everything but I think the man might just appreciate hearing it from you."

"I wanted to call him this weekend, after I send the letter to Caroline off," Sebastian mentioned and Oliver smiled at him, soft and understanding and giving strength, "maybe I get lucky and they both turn up for graduation."

"Do you _want_ that?" Oliver tested carefully, stealing a fry from Sebastian's plate to retaliate for the corner of the steak that Sebastian had cut off on his plate just a minute ago.

"My ultra strict state attorney father and my big hippie sister joining up for my graduation from an elite Academy where I was involved in a steroid scandal?" Sebastian summarized it quite shortly and then chuckled, "it sure would be one hell of a goodbye to this place."

"Maybe Caroline could bring her free-living community along. Misses Peterson would drop dead," Oliver laughed over their very conservative English teacher's tendencies to overreact to anything outside of Ohio's rather boring day to day life. Peterson was very accepting of all sexualities and encouraged them to pick literature projects with diversity at all times but present her with a punk or a hippie and the old woman went white in the face.

"I don't think _I'm_ ready for that," Sebastian countered and they snickered a little over the images in their heads. "But it would be great to see Caro again, alone just so you can meet her and for her to meet you and my friends." He had no doubt that his sister would like his friends and that after a little adjustment period they would like her as well.

"Well," Oliver said and picked up his glass, waiting until Sebastian did the same, "here's to graduation plans and miracles." They clinked glasses and then went back to eating.

After they were done they got milkshakes to go at the ice cream parlor around the corner and then drove out to the park on the edge of Westerville whose big hill on the Northern side offered a beautiful view of Dalton. They walked hand in hand, not caring if someone would say something, Westerville was the more accepting part of Columbus, Dalton's history to be thanked. They sat down one of the benches on top of hill and watched the lights flicker on in their school as the sun vanished behind the hills.

Maybe there were some things that Sebastian was nervous about where it concerned the future but with choosing a college he had already conquered the worst of it, and he wouldn't be alone in any of it. He had his friends, he had his family. And he had Oliver.

**\--**

Sebastian was yawning himself to death in the library when his rather boring study day got an almost violent turn around. He was in the middle of a history assignment and the book he had dug up at the back of the library was so dusty that he was either gonna choke on it soon or the sleeping curse of its content would get him, whatever it would be he would need a break soon before he sank onto the table top.

His break came in the form of two freshmen running into the library despite the loud complaining yells of Misses Tram, Sebastian only looked their way with a raised eyebrow when it became clear he was their target.

"Sebastian, you have to come quick!" The smaller one of them gasped out when they more or less crashed against his table and Sebastian raised an eyebrow, neither of these boys were Warblers but he recognized their faces from the Cross Country team.

"Do I?" He couldn't help the sarcasm though but slowly set the frail book down and capped his pens again, "Pray tell me why?" The boys exchanged a look and if this was a set up from Nick and Jeff, he was going to turn this on them hard.

"Blaine Anderson turned up," the smaller boy spoke up again and Sebastian froze, mind coming to a standstill as he tried to process that information. "And he crossed paths with Connors." Sebastian was on his feet before the kid had even finished speaking, pushing them ahead of himself as he hurried them out of the library, Misses Tram frowning even harder at them and the broken vow of silence for her holy dusty walls.

"Where?" Sebastian wanted to know the moment they had stepped past the library doors and back into the rather empty corridors of early Tuesday afternoon.

"Right by the entrance," Philipp, Sebastian was quite sure the kid's name was Philipp, told him and Sebastian wrenched himself left, calling over his shoulder for the boys to find Rob as he began to run. He cursed when he reached the first staircase, of course this had to happen when he was in the library, on the other end of the fucking school, only the dorms were even further away from the main entrance.

Sebastian would have to switch floors two times to even reach the right building part, so come on, Olli, come on, don't lose your head just because Blaine really had balls and nerves to turn up unannounced. Don't do something stupid. By the time he was snapping at people to get out of his way on the staircase right outside the entrance hall, he was slightly out of breath but still able enough to keep running when he pushed open the last necessary door and saw Oliver towering over Blaine, surrounded by people who were just staring.

Of course.

He pushed past them none too gently and then swung himself around Oliver and right in between Blaine and him, hands quickly coming up to frame his boyfriend's face when he saw how furious warm eyes were. "Hey, hey, snap out of it. This is so not worth it, Olli," he tried to break through the red that he knew was coloring Oliver's vision, ignoring Blaine standing behind him entirely, there were more important things right now than figure out what brought the hobbit into their halls. "Olli, look at me. Please." Slowly but then with only more intensity Oliver moved to look at him, "let me deal with this."

"Hell no," Oliver told him immediately and his voice left absolutely no room for any compromise, "there is no way I am even going to let you be alone in one room with him."

"Woah," Blaine couldn't keep silent of fucking course and Sebastian internally screamed at him to shut the fuck up, "I don't mean harm to anyone. Who do you think I am?" And Sebastian had to twist and move when Oliver made to lunge past him with a growl. With his arms wrapped around Oliver from behind to hold him back, Sebastian took his first real good look at Blaine, found him dressed in one of his no longer cute looking cardigans, this one purple, white shirt beneath, usual bow tie around his neck and he would not let Oliver's hands get close to that ridiculous thing.

"That change of heart comes a bit too late, won't you agree, Anderson?" Oliver spit in his direction and Sebastian threw a look at their audience, narrowed his eyes at Flint and Dennis to know better and get these eyes away from them. When he looked back towards Blaine, one hand pressing down over Oliver's heart, he saw real confusion in Blaine's eyes and that just hurt even more than him not caring would have. He didn't even get what he had done. "You think you can turn up here after what you have done? After you got to take the glory home and we got the hospital?"

"Olli, not here," Sebastian hissed at him and then somewhere behind them Nick's unmistakable voice yelled for people to start moving their butts. Rob appeared at his side a few short breaths later. "Rob, I think Olli needs some air."

"Yeah, I got him," Rob assured him and grabbed Oliver's arm the moment Sebastian let go of him again, trying to deadpan away the betrayed look Oliver sent him, there was a right way to deal with this situation and anger was not it. "Come on, buddy, you can kick at some trees outside. You sure you're good, Seb?"

"I'm fine, just get him out of here." Sebastian told him and then turned to face Blaine again, listening to Rob quietly chatter to Oliver as they walked away. "You have nerve turning up here out of the blue, Blaine."

"Nerve? To come _visit_ you guys?" Blaine spluttered out and a few months ago Sebastian might have found his deer-caught-in-headlights look cute, but not anymore, it was like he got to see Blaine in a whole new different light. No more distractions, no more temptations. "I just wanted to see how you were doing after this... scandal with Clarington."

Blaine seriously had no idea what had happened to them.

Damn, Santana had truly kept her mouth shut.

"Nick, can we use the choir room?" Sebastian wanted to now without raising his voice or looking over his shoulder, he knew Nick would be watching and listening.

"Are you sure?" Nick asked him right back and Sebastian got the underlying question over the choice of room and the memories that it might trigger if he talked about what had happened there but Sebastian doubted that suddenly something would change so he nodded. "Alright, yeah, go ahead. Text if you... need anything."

'Text if you need someone to intervene.'

Sebastian wrenched his head to the side and then started walking without seeing if Blaine was actually following him, if he wanted answers, he better. They took the walk in silence, even though he could feel that Blaine was burning to ask his thousand questions but Sebastian was going go take this on his terms. Once they had reached the empty choir room, he told Blaine to take a seat and then closed the doors, he wouldn't lock them, that brought on a feeling of lowkey panic and he needed a clear head.

He sat down on the couch across from Blaine and glanced around the room, the council desk was filled with sheet music, showing that Nick and Rob had been at song choices when the freshmen had come running for them.

"Sebastian, what am I missing? Why am I being treated like the villain?" Blaine wanted to know in his confused befuddlement and Sebastian met his eyes, chose to go right for the jugular.

"After you went to the authorities and the show choir commitee to reveal your findings, Hunter and some of his loyal sidekicks attacked Oliver, Jeff, Nick, Daniel and me." He began calmly and Blaine froze, eyes going wide. "Nick was thrown out of that window. Oliver into that table. Over there by the wall, before the renovations, you would have found Daniel's blood and him unconscious on the ground. Where you're sitting now, Jeff was trying to keep someone from punching him with a bottle. I was lying there at the bottom of the council desk, Hunter towering over me with a needle. Rob saved us from things getting even worse. We all landed in the hospital anyway, Nick and Daniel with the worst injuries, it took weeks for us to recover. I still don't remember what happened truly, all I know, all I can tell you is what I learned from the others."

"I don't know what to say."

"I'm not expecting you to say anything," Sebastian came out with it because he didn't, he wasn't expecting apologies or explanations, "I just want you to have the full picture." Whatever Blaine could say now in justifying why he hadn't given them a second of a warning, it couldn't take back what had happened. And maybe Nick and Jeff wanted that 'I'm sorry', maybe Rob and Oliver were a little out for a fight but Sebastian just wanted to move past it.

"I'm so sorry. I just wanted justice." Blaine told him and he looked crestfallen now, Sebastian shifted a little on the couch, eyes once more drawn to the music sheets on the council table. The boys had voted Sebastian back into the leader position but this time as head of the reestablished council, with Rob and Oliver backing him up.

"And you got it." He pointed out to Blaine who went rigid and sat up even more straight, some short months ago he would hated to see Blaine like this, right now he was only wondering if Oliver had calmed down already. He was gonna grovel later to have Oliver forget the vendette he wanted.

"Not like that! I didn't want it like that." Blaine argued and dragged a hand through his hair, causing his gelled curls to stand up all weird. "Never, Sebastian, you have to believe me."

"I don't have to do anything, Blaine." Sebastian calmly reacted and looked back over to him and his wide half panicked eyes, "I don't owe anything to you. Not anymore."

They fell into a silence after that, Sebastian because he wanted to give Blaine space to really process what had been said and Blaine because he was visibly struggling to take it all in. He also watched Sebastian for a good while then, seemed to look at him with new eyes, finally now, Sebastian could say, it was something he had wanted back when already when Blaine had come to Dalton because of Hunter's stupid scheme. Back then Blaine had only laughed over him turning over a new leaf, and that should have been the moment to realize that not only could it ever work between them but even being friends was not possible.

Sebastian couldn't be friends with people who didn't see the real him.

"Connors and you..." Blaine broke the silence carefully and looked over to the double doors, maybe expecting them to be thrown open under Oliver's hands because saying his name worked like a summoning charm for Sebastian's protector. Sebastian smiled, glancing down at the leather string around his left wrist that was peaking out just so from his shirt sleeves, Oliver and Rob had only last week come up with the idea to have something for them. The Common Room Six.

"Yeah, maybe one of the good things that came out of this nightmare." Sebastian confirmed his relationship and he saw for a brief moment a strange look in Blaine's eyes before that changed again.

"We can't be friends anymore, can we?"

And then there was that question that Sebastian had been expecting now, and he was glad actually that Blaine had come to that observation by himself and Sebastian hadn't needed to further nudge him towards it.

"No, we can't. Our worlds don't go together, Blaine. I'm happy where I am now, happy with who I am, and I truly wish for you to get there someday, too." That last part might have been too close to making a dig at Blaine's still rather broken relationship to his horrible boyfriend but Sebastian didn't mean it like that. He still thought that Blaine deserved someone better than Hummel, even if he had shown backstabbing tendencies now, too, but if Blaine wanted to find happiness there, then he should at least try. "Now, I'm not gonna throw you out. I don't have that kind of authority, and maybe Nick and Jeff still want to catch up but I also gotta find Olli. I'm sorry that it got to this, Blaine. And I wish you only the best."

"Yeah, me too."

And as he walked out of the common room and nodded for Nick outside to show that he was alright, Sebastian really felt like that still rather short conversation had brought him some kind of much needed closure.

**\--**

"Knive fights and people jumping from rooftops is not an art form, it's money making!"

Sebastian rolled his eyes when he passed by Nick's and Jeff's room later that evening, grinning because it was the closest that those two ever got to a fight and even this was only half arguing, too, and it wouldn't last longer than fifteen minutes top. He had stopped by the post station after dinner because Caroline had actually sent a letter for once, recycable paper, words written in actual ink but at least she had written and Sebastian had an address now. He wondered if his father had somehow gotten in contact with her to tell her about what had happened.

In his room, he found Rob under his headphones on his own bed, flipping through something on his tablet and acknowledging Sebastian's entry with a flick of his fingers. On Sebastian's bed, Oliver was stretched out on his stomach, his Spanish workbook placed onto the pillows. Sebastian set the letter onto his desk and then climbed up on Oliver, planting himself on his back, causing his boyfriend to grunt but not shake him off. They had talked after Sebastian had returned from his conversation with Blaine and all was good but he also wanted the casual intimacy now.

"Did you get your letter?" Oliver asked after he had finished another exercise and Sebastian hummed into his shoulderblade, eyes closed, body going limp. Oliver reached behind himself and patted whatever he could reach of Sebastian. "Don't you want to read it?"

"Later, right now I don't wanna move," Sebastian mumbled and then groaned in complaint when Oliver pushed him off and rolled him onto his back, rearranging him as he pleased with a shit eating grin, Rob didn't even look over to them anymore. He usually only pulled the plug when hands slipped too far under shirts, and even then he only chased them over into Oliver's single.

And today it was Nick and Jeff who set an end to it anyway, appearing a few minutes into Oliver's and Sebastian's lowkey make out session with a bedraggled Danny being pulled between them.

"Movie night anyone?" Nick asked into the round and Sebastian needed to push Oliver away from his neck to actually look at him, Rob was already pulling off his headphones.

"I'm in." Rob said and sent Sebastian a look, Oliver was sitting up as well but dragging a hand through his hair, "you two want some privacy?"

"No, we don't," Sebastian deadpanned in his direction and then buttoned his shirt up again, how Oliver constantly managed to open it without him realizing was an enigma. "Movie night with friends sounds awesome actually."

"As long as it's not some artsy shit we need subtitles for," Oliver threw in afterwards and reached out to smooth down Sebastian's hair, "and by all that is holy, please not another superhero flick for at least a month. I haven't recovered from the Marvel marathon yet."

"We could watch Gansgter Squad," Danny proposed and got some heads turned, "I got that one yesterday and it's supposed to be really good."

"That was the one set in 1940, right? About Micky Cohen?" Sebastian wanted clarified and Danny nodded, looking small and puppy like as always when surrounded by Nick and Jeff. As they had all learned in the weeks since spring break, all of them had a hard time saying no to Danny, and the kid had figured that out by now.

"Alright, we're set then," Rob decided and got to his feet, "Nick and I fetch snacks, Danny gets the movie and you three can set up the room."

By the time the opening scene began no one was thinking about Blaine's visit anymore, it was just six boys having a good time and some popcorn competition halfway through the movie.


	8. Epilogue - Back to the Future

_"Hey, how about once this school belongs to us again, we go out to the lake, screw rehearsal today."_

_He cashes in happy smiles and agreeing sighs. Oliver kisses the back of his neck and that means the world to him._

_Sebastian Smythe has a life, a good life, a happy life, without Blaine Anderson but with friends who went with him through the worst times and then pieced him together right along with each other, with a boyfriend who knows him better than he does himself._

_And now he can't wait to see what the future will bring him._

The immediate future brings him to the lake shore on the North side of Dalton's grounds once the school belongs to just them again, every one else gone again after some thanks have been exchanged. They are not the only ones staying behind on this weekend, so close to final exams no one dares to waste time on train or car rides home, even with fun time activities they don't forget that exams are coming up.

They take their books, notepads and tablets as much as they take the beachball and the inflatable stuff that they'll spend more time pushing each other off with than actually sitting on it. They find the place in the shadow of the old maple tree that has become theirs last fall already, it's like there is a flag they can't see, no one else sits there. Nick and Jeff have picnic blankets, multiple, because of course they do, Sebastian is too happy to question things, so no one has to sit down on their towels. Four of them just drop their stuff, Nick and Rob actually take the time to rearrange stuff, by the time they're done Sebastian and Oliver have already thrown Jeff and Danny down the pier, both boys shrieking like banshees.

Oliver and Jeff start a water fight before they swim over to the boys who have begun a game of waterball, it was wild and loud and not what Sebastian wants right then. He grabs one of the floatie things, looks like a popsicle with much imagination, and just lets himself drift. Danny stays with him, having sat himself down on one of the few lilos that don't look like animals or random stuff.

"You know it's gonna be weird to come back after the summer," Danny tells him and Sebastian looks over to him, he had come out of his shell a lot in the months since the attack, his confidence had been boosted on more than one occasion, "None of you are gonna be here."

"You'll be fine, kid." Sebastian told him because it was the truth, Danny had stopped letting everyone just walk over him, had learned to say no and mean it and maybe he didn't really have friends in his year yet but he had stopped shying away from them. "And if anything comes up, you got all of our numbers and I promise you we're gonna pick up." Danny nodded and then his eyes widened and he made an effort to get away from Sebastian as fast as he could, prompting Sebastian to turn around.

Just in time for Rob to canon ball from the pier and bury him in an avalanche of water.

**\--**

Later that evening when Rob asked for an hour alone to skype with Thad who would certainly want to know about the day, Sebastian and Oliver let him have his privacy and enjoyed the summer warmth to take a long walk around the lake after the sun had already begun to set. The beautiful advantages of being a Senior in the last weeks of school, curfew didn't exist for them basically as long as they kept on school grounds, to give them plenty opportunity to use the library whenever they needed to. 

"I hope Jeff managed to convince Nick that drugging people with sleeping pills to get them to take a break is a step too far," Oliver mumbled when they stepped out of the dorms, "River needs sleep, not pills." Sebastian was tempted to easily agree that Nick's plan was a little off the line but River had really not looked good this afternoon and people who talked to their books to explain better needed sleep by all means necessary.

"Remind us of that when you start begging us to knock you out again once History approaches," Sebastian chuckled and Oliver elbowed him, it wasn't because he was bad in history, quite on the contrary, no one loved and took it as serious as Oliver did.

A perfect grade in his final history exam would be the first step in that journalism career.

"Come on, let's just walk and not talk about finals again," Oliver proposed and Sebastian laughed but also tugged him down towards the path. It was quiet out, the underclassmen had curfew in check, the Juniors were giving the Seniors the peace they needed and the Seniors were either studying or enjoying a quiet moment of their own. The sky was orange and golden and it was really beautiful, Sebastian hoped they could get to the hills on the other side of the lake just in time to see the last remaining minutes of the sunset.

Considering how much Oliver knew him to love that moment it would certainly work out.

They didn't talk really as they walked, too comfortable in silence with each other, shoulders bumping against each other from time to time, Oliver's thumb stroking over the back of Sebastian's knuckles then and now. It was such a simple little thing, these little gestures but they could calm Sebastian even in his most stressful moments. Mid rant over some dumb teacher's comment, head gone red already, Oliver wouldn't even look, just reach over, stroke over his hand or the back of his neck with a gentle thumb and Sebastian's anger would just poof off into thin air.

He loved that.

And he loved Oliver.

He had come to that realization a couple of nights ago when a nightmare had shook him awake not lucid enough to really differentiate reality from fiction right away and Rob had gotten Oliver when Sebastian had only pushed at him. Oliver had gotten into bed with him after just one look at the situation, had sat next to Sebastian, not touching, just being there and then had hummed some song until Sebastian's head had cleared enough to understand where he was. And then he had basically crawled into that hug and then fallen asleep to Oliver softly carding his fingers through Sebastian's hair.

Sebastian's last remembered thought of that night had been 'I love you.'

And he hadn't been scared.

As they reached the hills on the other side of the lake, Sebastian felt nearly giddy when they were in fact just in time to watch the last minutes of the sunset. Horizon burning red and orange and deep gold. Oliver chuckled behind him and wrapped him into a tight warm hug, "I can't stop being amazed by how cute you're getting over sunsets. Big bad Sebastian Smythe, melting over sunsets and shooting stars."

"And you."

"Hm?" Oliver asked, either because Sebastian had said it too quietly or because he didn't understand, Sebastian waited another moment until the sun had truly sunk away for the night before he turned around in Oliver's loosening embrace to look at him.

"I'm melting over you, too," Sebastian said and he smiled when even in the approaching nightly darkness he now saw Oliver blush. "Olli, I love you." And that blush turned into the brightest smile he had possibly yet seen on his boyfriend, and just because his heart felt ready to burst, he said it again right away. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Bas," Oliver breathed back at him and then leaned down for a kiss that Sebastian only too happily lost himself in.

This was the happy end to a difficult year.


End file.
